Never Ending Agony
by caged-aquarius
Summary: After a devastating loss, the Mockingjays have to piece themselves back together while attempting to find out the secrets behind the mysterious Antidote, the key to saving their lives. In the darkness, unknown to the tribe, lies another one, becoming more dangerous and stronger with each passing day, determined to keep the name of someone they thought was long gone alive forever...
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Here is the first chapter of the sequel to The Dawn, and I hope you enjoy it! If you've clicked on this and haven't read my other story, The Dawn, I highly suggest reading it first... but if you don't I'll warn you, you'll spoil The Dawn for yourself, and will be quite confused... Anyways, I hope you enjoy... despite my _little _twist :) and I apologize for the length! I promise the next chapter will definitely be longer!**

**DISCLAIMER: This is inspired by the second season of the TV show "The Tribe." I do not own "The Tribe" or "The Hunger Games." **

Never Ending Agony

Chapter One

In the dark of night, far, far away from the Mockingjays, another group had happened to notice the satellite passing by… but they weren't looking for Virus answers. In fact, they saw it as a sign. Gathered beyond a crowd of people in dark purple robes, hoods up, flaming torches in their hands, a guy of seventeen years old stepped forward, wearing white robes, long brown hair flowing down his back, green eyes trained on his crowd.

"It is time, Great One." A red-haired guy told the boy in the white robes. The white-robed boy, simply known by his followers as The Great One nodded, and the other boy disappeared to join the rest, bowing before he left, the sign of respect The Great One demanded from all of his group. The Great One took a step forward, looking up at the moonlight, pure insanity in his eyes, though no one noticed. They were as crazy as he was.

"It is a sign, brethren. A sign for our god, that he wants us to embark on our great quest straight away!" The Great One raised his hands into the air as he spoke, eyes staying on the moonlight above, never going down to his followers. He knew the were listening. "Oh Marvel, our god! We, The Elite, the ones chosen by you to carry on your epic journey… shall be AVENGED!"

The name of their god was chanted into the night, echoing around the area, one by one, each torch was extinguished. Even when all of the light from the fire was gone, they continued to chant. The Great One watched on, grinning up at the sky. Their quest would lead them to absolutely brilliant things…

xxxx

"There is an Antidote. All the major buildings in Panem have it. There were plans for a worldwide manufacture, but the Virus spread too quickly. We tried to escape, thought we may be spared, but as you can see now, we weren't. It is up to you. Save yourselves, find the Antidote, and may God go with you." The voice of the adult continued to speak to the Mockingjays, who were in a state of complete disbelief. When the message was over, the observatory was completely silent for a few minutes, everyone too surprised to talk… until an awful sound, a sound that could only mean trouble was coming, came through the building, quickly followed by a fade-out of the lights.

"What's going on?!" Prim asked, sounding terrified. Madge put an arm around her and Finch and Thresh got up, grabbing a torch they had found in a drawer in the desk, turning it on quickly, flashing it on the group for a second, then down the halls.

"It's probably just the generator, we'll go check it out." Thresh said to him as he began to walk down the halls. "Everyone stay here, alright?" Though he couldn't see it in the dark, everyone nodded in response, desperately wanting to know what was happening. As they passed doors leading to other labs, break rooms, and storerooms, Finch looked down at a slip of paper in her hands.

"Well, from what I've seen in the files, the Antidote is in one of five buildings… all of which, are top secret, and for all we know, could've been burnt to ashes by adults who had no idea… or one of the gangs, that were equally clueless." Finch muttered. "We'll just have to hope for the best, I-" She continued, but was cut off by Thresh, who put a finger to her lips, pointing down the hall, where a huge cloud of smoke was forming.

"Finch, shh…" Thresh said quickly, trying to listen to a faint noise in the background as he slowly made his way to the generator, Finch following. All that they could hear was an awful churning noise that droned on and on… that definitely meant trouble. Through the smoke, they could faintly spot a label on the generator, that read something that made them bolt: WARNING – RISK OF EXPLOSION.

"FINCH, RUN! AND DON'T STOP UNTIL YOU GET OUT!" Thresh screamed at her, tossing her his torch. Following his orders, she ran. Thresh quickly looked back… to spot a huge fireball spiralling down the hall… making him run even faster. An evacuation warning echoed through the building, an alarm sounding, both of them mixed together, absolutely deafening.

As Finch and Thresh escaped the hall, a giant explosion rocked the observatory…

xxxx

Loud screams echoed through the night, ending chills down Madge's, who was the first to get out of the building, a screeching Marshall in her arms, spine. Desperately, she rocked him, looking around as she coughed loudly, wanting to scream herself. Were she and Marshall the only ones left? She desperately hoped not…. she couldn't do it… she just couldn't…

"MADGE!" The blonde girl immediately whipped her head around at Finnick's voice, sighing in relief, coughing again afterwards, extremely loudly, feeling like she was about to retch from the smoke she had inhaled. Her eyes went wide at the sight of Finnick, who was carrying an unconscious Peeta in his arms, three packs on his other. Heart racing, she desperately hoped he wasn't dead. Laying Peeta down on the concrete, he ran over to her. "Is Marshall okay?"

"Yes.. but what about the others?!" Madge exclaimed frantically as the two looked around, to find Thresh carrying Finch in his arms exiting the building, followed by Rue, who was soon followed by Rory, who was trying to calm down Prim, who was hysterically crying out for her sister. Madge quickly looked around… Katniss was nowhere to be seen… or Glimmer… or Cato… or Clove, who she was quickly proven wrong about. Racing out of the building, Clove joined the others.

"KATNISS!" Prim screamed into the night, tears streaming down her cheeks as another extremely loud explosion rocked the observatory, a bloody, ash-covered Cato staggering out, looking like he was about to fall over and pass out.

"GLIMMER! WHERE'S GLIMMER?!" Cato shouted as he slowly joined the group, looking around as he coughed madly. The rest of the group looked around. Glimmer, as well as Katniss, were nowhere to be seen. Another explosion… the worst one yet, erupted from the building, one clear to all that whoever was in there when it occurred was a goner.

The following morning, the sky was dark and dull, ash lingering in the sky from the explosion the night before, the explosion that had claimed the live of two of the Mockingjays – Glimmer and Katniss. Two graves had been constructed, two small crosses, reading the names of the two, serving as the final resting spot for the two. Glimmer's body had been found in the early morning by Cato, while no one had found Katniss yet… but no one was looking. No one had the energy to do a single thing except stand, sit, or kneel by the graves, hopelessness, grief, and despair all around them. No one spoke a word… until Clove joined them.

"How unfortunate." Clove sighed, looking down at the group. "This is why I don't get too close to anyone… you just end up hurting." Madge turned her attention from Prim, who was sobbing hysterically into her shoulder, looking like she was about to collapse from grief, to the dark-haired girl, glaring at her. No one was in the mood for anything she had to say, much more than ever before. They were over it all… especially her.

"Don't you dare." Madge growled, looking at her with the most icy look anyone had ever seen, a look that could kill. Clove looked at her and sighed, eyes then going to the two graves the tribe were gathered around, stepping closer to them slowly. No one else moved an inch, too worried they would end up collapsing.

"Dare do what?" Clove said in a fake-innocent tone, keeping her eyes on the graves as she opened her mouth again, though everyone desperately wished she'd shut up. They didn't expect her to care… they didn't want to…. they just wanted to grieve on their own, without her trying to stir up trouble and provoke them. "I'm just paying my respects… I quite liked both of them." Before Madge or anyone else could say anything, Prim spoke softly, voice shaking madly.

"Someone… someone should say something…" Prim said to them all, trembling as she spoke. Madge rubbed her back and held her tightly, wanting to comfort her as best as possible, though she knew it wouldn't help her much…. it wouldn't bring back her sister, or take her pain away, or even numb it much. To there surprise, Cato, who hadn't spoken a single word since last night when he found Glimmer was gone, stepped forward, and began to speak.

"Yes, Prim, they should." Cato paused rapidly, looking up at Thresh and Finch, looking absolutely furious with them. "This is for our lovely geniuses Finch and Thresh… who wanted to bring us all to this death trap in the first place! Because of you, Glimmer and our baby are dead. If you hadn't brought us here, they'd still be alive…" He snapped, shoving past the rest of the tribe and walking off before Finch, Thresh, or anyone else could say anything else in response to him. Sighing, Madge slowly pulled away from Prim, who Rory went over to and hugged tightly, and began to walk off herself.

"I'm going to check on Peeta…" Madge murmured, going off slowly, fresh tears that she had tried to stop from forming threatening to spill down her cheeks at any given moment. No one said anything else, just continued to stand in silence, having no more words to say. Everyone had pretty much given up…

xxxx


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you to Lya200 for ****reviewing! I hope you enjoy this chapter. If you read this, tell me what you think in a review! I love hearing what people think of my stories :) **

Chapter Two

After leaving the mourning group at the graves, Madge slowly made her way back to where Peeta lay, inside the old, completely destroyed observatory, having had nowhere else to put him to rest. Making her way in through the basement entrance, the door completely obliterated in the explosion, she made her way over to Peeta, bones chilling as she walked through the ruins, only one thought running through her mind – Katniss' body could be anywhere in this room… anywhere… lying motionless, eyes glassy, covered in ash, blood and run from the explosion that had so cruelly taken her from the world.

"Peeta?" Madge murmured, kneeling beside him, running a hand over his forehead. Luckily, he didn't have the same fever he had had early that morning. Slowly, responding to her voice, Peeta slowly stirred a little, drowsily murmuring her name back. Dread ran through her. From the looks of everything just before the explosion, when the message had come through from the satellite, they had made up… and maybe even gotten together, by the way they were standing together, hand in hand, extremely close, like they never wanted to separate. The news of Katniss' death would completely crush him.

"Madge…" Peeta mumbled, slowly sitting up with a groan, rubbing his head, leaning carefully against a now blackened wall. "What… what happened?" Madge took a deep breath, trying to prepare herself for what she was going to say, knowing deep down that she'd never actually be prepared to tell him… but someone had to, before he found out himself.

"I'll do it." Cato said quietly to her surprise, slowly coming up behind her, arms crossed. Madge looked back at him for a second, sighing when she saw how he looked. He looked absolutely terrible, still covered in ash and blood, looking like he hadn't slept in years. While she despised him most of the time, she felt absolutely awful for him. He and Glimmer had only made up about a week or two ago, just a few days before the journey. They were having a baby together… and now she was gone.

"Alright, then…" Madge said, voice almost a whisper. She was quite reluctant to leave Peeta with Cato, but if he wanted to tell him the news, she'd let him… she desperately didn't want to do it. Quickly, she sadly left for the graves again, leaving the two boys together. As Peeta stood up, shaking a little, he began to speak.

"Cato… what happened? Where is everyone?" Peeta asked quickly, sensing by how quiet Madge and him were and his appearance that something seriously was wrong. As he waited for Cato's response, he looked around the room, blacked, ashy and burnt-out… something definitely was seriously wrong about this picture.

"By the graves." Cato said, a coldness in his voice that wasn't really directed at him, but at the adults for starting this whole thing, Finch and Thresh for bringing them to Feather Mountain, at Glimmer for leaving him here by himself… he had no idea where to begin. Immediately, as soon as the word 'graves' escaped Cato's lips, Peeta stopped shaking, a look of alarm on his face. Graves? Yes, something was very, very wrong.

"Graves?" Peeta questioned, the alarm transferring into his tone. Cato looked at him and sighed for a few seconds, before looking down at the blackened ground, shaking his head. "Cato… what happened? Where's Katniss?" The alarm in his tone had now shifted to sadness. No. She couldn't… Katniss couldn't be buried outside, could she? She'd be with the group… trying to help them heal… right… right?

"When the generator blew, everything went crazy. There was smoke everywhere… it was so dark… we could barely get out." Cato began, forcing himself to pause. "Some of us… if you dare call it that, were lucky, and got out relatively unscathed. From what they told me, Finnick hauled you out just in time, otherwise… you would've been just like Katniss. Gone." Peeta just about charged towards him, Cato quickly knocking him back, almost sending him to the floor.

"What?!" Peeta couldn't believe it. He refused it. This was just a sick, sick lie… a game… and it certainly wasn't funny. When he went out there, he'd find her… and it'd all be fine. She couldn't be gone… not even a day ago had they made up and had their first kiss! They were just starting out! "You… you… you're a LIAR!" Peeta screamed.

"If you don't believe me, go outside and join the tribe… they look like they're about to fall apart!" Cato growled at him, keeping his arms crossed. Peeta paced around the room, trying to think. Everything was spinning. He felt like he was about to collapse. Why couldn't this be like a really cheesy movie and all be a dream? He sighed. Life didn't work that way.

"WHY THE HELL WOULD I CARE ABOUT THE TRIBE?!" Peeta screamed, grabbing the first thing he could find, an old ashen crate, and tossing it into the wall opposite. It didn't make him feel better, it didn't even numb the pain for a few seconds. Everything just stayed the same. Neither of the boys spoke for quite awhile, Cato not wanting to say another word and Peeta too busy thinking, all of the other boy's words swirling around in his mind. Then, it hit him. Graves? Who else perished in the explosion? "Wait.. you said graves?" The silence returned.

"Yeah, I said graves. You aren't the only one grieving, you know, Loverboy." Cato spat at him, feeling nothing but hurt inside. "Glimmer died as well, the baby she was carrying too. I found her body this morning. Buried her myself." He frowned at Peeta, and then turned away before he could get another word in, going back out into the morning air to the graves, wind chilling him to the bone.

Peeta looked down at the ground, continuing to pace around. Hurt. Anger. Sadness. Grief. Every emotion seemed to blur together… he had no one feeling. In fact, he had no idea what to think. The tribe was is pieces. Glimmer and her unborn child were dead. Katniss was dead… was it even worth continuing? Did anyone even want to? Would they rather let the Virus take them?

He didn't want to know the answers.

xxxx

About half an hour later, Peeta emerged from the ruined observatory, eyes locking on the two hastily built crosses, tears forming in his blue eyes. None of this was right. Why was Katniss so cruelly taken away from them? Why? Why did any of this have to happen? He know those were answers he'd never get, and sadly so. Eventually, struggling to do so, he took his eyes off the graves, them swerving around the group, who were going to head back to the city. Slowly, feeling like he was going to collapse, he joined the group, taking a brown pack basically lathered in ash of the pile of supplies they managed to save, and putting it on his back quickly.

"Peeta… you're here…" Finnick mumbled as he ran a hand through his hair, covered in ash. Peeta's eyes went to the grass, having no idea what to say to him. He knew he should be thankful that Finnick hauled him out, when he could've easily darted off and just saved his own skin, but instead, he was bitter. If Finnick hadn't rescued him, he'd be with Katniss. Reluctantly, Peeta looked up at the other boy, his words a struggle to get out.

"Th… th… Thanks for getting me out last night." Peeta said, trying to keep the awkwardness that was forming out of his voice, though it was quite a struggle to keep up. Finnick, somehow sensing a small bit of bitterness, stepped away, and simply gave him a nod of his head before going down and helping Thresh load up some of their remaining supplies. He forced himself not to groan in annoyance when Clove came up to him.

"Peeta…" Clove began, standing beside him, fiddling with her fingers. "I'm… I'm… sorry about your bit- girlfriend…" She sighed, looking down, it very, very obvious that she didn't mean a single word she had said, so obvious even a two year old would be able to see she was lying. Peeta just shook his head.

"Clove, save it. I'm not in the mood for you or your games." Peeta muttered tiredly, walking away from her quickly before she could spit out anymore lies he could hear properly that would make his stomach turn. Though it came as a struggle for some reason, he cleared his throat loudly, making the group all look at him. He immediately regretted doing it… his throat burnt badly, but he quickly decided he deserved it. Served him right for not being able to get Katniss out. "I'm just informing you all of my decision to step down as leader of the Mockingjays… and that I'm going to leave the tribe." A few gasps and murmurs erupted from the bunch.

"Peeta? No… no… you can't!" Rue persisted, face falling again as she looked at him. "We've already lost Katniss and Glimmer… do we have to lose you too?" Her voice shook as she spoke. Sighing, Peeta looked down, not wanting to look into the twelve year old's golden eyes any longer, not wanting to see the pain and hurt.

"I'm sorry, Rue… but it's for the best. I can't stay here anymore." Peeta said softly and slowly. "Goodbye.." He mumbled as the Mockingjays reluctantly turned away from him and slowly joined together, in awful moods. The tone had changed for the absolute worst since their seemingly long ago arrival to Feather Mountain. Not wanting to look anymore, Peeta made his way over to Katniss' grave, kneeling beside it, finally letting some tears fall. "Katniss…" He murmured. "You.. you're in a beautiful place now. There's no gangs.. no weapons… no blood… no Virus… you're finally away from this place.." He said slowly. "Good… goodbye… I'm sorry I couldn't save you… I'm sorry you're gone…" He trailed off, unable to get the rest of his words out. He saw a blur of blonde kneel beside him. Madge, Marshall in her arms as always, a look of despair on her face.

"Peeta…" Madge sighed, looking over at him, tears forming in her eyes. She reached her free hand out, putting it in his and squeezing it tightly. They'd been through a lot together, in this past year. It was hard to believe they had been in this Virus ridden wasteland of a world for a year now. The Virus.. the pregnancy… Marshall's arrival… Marvel's death… almost starvation… Virus Wave Two… Feather Mountain… he couldn't just go now! They were all hurting… they could get through this too! "I know you're hurting. We all are… we need you so much at the moment! More than ever!" She said to him, squeezing his hand tightly again.

"I can't, Madge. Katniss was the real leader of the group, always was. Let Cato do it, or something." Peeta said, not thinking through his words properly, shaking his head gently.

"You really think that Cato will be up to leading us? Maybe a few months ago he would've jumped at the chance… but he's grieving as well. We need you… a leader, a true leader…" Madge persisted with a sigh. Peeta took his hand out of hers and turned away, sighing as well.

"Madge, I can't." Peeta said, tiredness in his voice once more. "I can't lead the Mockingjays… I just can't." He took a deep breath, still not facing her. "I hope you all find what you're looking for... good luck." He paused abruptly. "And… and… goodbye." Sighing, feeling extremely defeated, Madge got up, starting to cry again. She didn't say another word, feeling too hurt to even attempt it.

xxxx

A few days later, at around evening, the Mockingjays stopped by a stream to have a late lunch, well within the sight of the city. The mood was still extremely bleak. Cato barely talked. Prim teared up at almost any word anyone said to her. Madge couldn't stop thinking about Peeta. Thresh was feeling extremely guilty about the trip. It felt like no one would ever be the same ever again. Taking out the food, Rory looked around the broken tribe with a sigh.

"I still don't understand.." Finch said with a shake of her head to Thresh as she took her plate of food. "I did a check on the generator when we first found the control room, when you were setting up. It was all fine… it seems like the place was booby trapped." Thresh nodded softly as Clove began to speak, everyone glaring at her, much like they had for the past few days of travel whenever she had opened her mouth, not expecting much of any significance to come out.

"We should get back to the mall tonight." Clove declared, making everyone glare at her more. When had she been voted into the Mockingjays? Half of the tribe were too scared of what she'd to if they chucked her out, while the other half didn't want to chuck her out… they just wanted her dead. Plain and simple as that, no exceptions. "Hopefully before another gang finds the place."

"What about the Antidote?" Finch muttered. She had felt some sadness for the ones grieving and felt bad that Glimmer and Katniss had passed on, but didn't share the same real feeling of guilt as Thresh. Turning his attention from Clove to her, Cato frowned.

"What about it? I don't care what we do concerning it anymore… does it even matter if we look for it?" Cato growled, pushing away his plate. The whole tribe had noticed he had barely eaten since Glimmer had died, which was extremely odd. "Why should we even look for it now, anyway?" Suddenly, a voice cut in, making everyone turn around, and almost everyone make a grin appear on their faces.

"Because people are dying… and they need it." Peeta's voice interjected. Madge immediately leapt up, trying to be mindful of her baby, and hugged him tightly. Peeta still didn't have a real grip on why he had returned to the Mockingjays… but he was back now, and that's what mattered.

"Peeta! I'm so glad you're back!" Madge said as she slowly pulled out of the hug and Peeta stepped forward, in some sort of newly-found 'leader-mode.' Everyone ate quickly as they listened to him, a little bit of hope restored in them by his unexpected return to the tribe.

"We'll need to split up." Peeta began as Thresh got up, passing him three maps of the city, and a small ripped out page from a notebook found in the control room of Feather Mountain which had the names of a few buildings in the city that he and Finch speculated the Antidote may be stored in. "Clove and Cato, you'll go together." He said, passing Cato the map which had one building in the city circled in red on it.

"Why do I have to go with him?" Clove sighed, shaking her head, snatching the map out of his hand. When Peeta didn't respond, the two slowly went down the pathway to the city, shoving eachother the whole way.

"I don't trust them together." Finch whispered to Peeta. "Hell, I don't trust either of them, period." She muttered. Peeta looked over at her, then down at his maps.

"Go follow them, then… I think it's for the best you do." Peeta nodded in agreement, and Finch raced off to catch up to Clove and Cato as fast as she could. "Thresh, you don't mind going by yourself, do you?" Thresh took his map and went off. "Finnick, Rue, Rory, Madge, and Prim, you guys will head back to the mall." He said to them as they packed up. "I'll take the last building by myself." They all nodded, and headed on their separate ways…

xxxx

Peeta zipped up his coat as he walked, shivering with the cold. He looked up at the sky, then down at his map and paper. His building, an old research laboratory that had been found on Finch and Thresh's files, was not too far away, and he wanted to make it there before the sun went down. As he walked through the streets, his eyes spotted a large white gate, and thinking it was the entrance to the lab, walked towards it. What he saw instead of the lab was possibly the most beautiful place he had ever seen… a gigantic mansion, the front garden full of plants, most overgrown or dead, and a fountain the shape of a rose. The place could be full of food… and it would be perfect to bring it back to the group!

Throwing his still-covered-in-ash pack over the gates, he climbed over carefully, hitting the ground loudly. By the look of the garden, it seemed as if the place had been abandoned long, long ago, but still, he was quiet and alert. Reaching the door, the initials C. S engraved in the fine wood, he tried to open it, but of course, it was locked. Though he didn't want to destroy the beauty of the door, he kicked it in, and went inside, looking around and trying to find the kitchen.

The interior of the house was absolutely gorgeous, elegant portraits hanging on the walls, even more elegant furniture around the place, crystal vases holding now withered and dead roses that had once been white… he wondered why the place hadn't been found by a gang and looted and ransacked. He was soon going to find out why. As soon as he entered the dining room, he heard a voice.

"Don't move. If you do as much as breathe, I'll kill you. I swear." Peeta held his hands up, and turned around. A girl, looking around fifteen, long brown hair askew, snake-like green eyes focused on him, had a large machine gun in her hand, pointed directly at his chest. It was obvious she meant business. "Why are you here?" She asked, silently granting him permission to speak.

"It's a long story-" Peeta began, only to be cut off. The girl gripped the gun tighter, scowling harder.

"We've got all night. Starting explaining. Now." The girl ordered, and Peeta, before he could stop himself, started to speak, word after word spilling out of his mouth…

xxxx


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thank you to Mr. Omelette (that isn't weird at all, that's what I was planning!) and Lya200 for reviewing! Reviews mean a lot to me :) I hope you enjoy this chapter, and I hope you can figure out who the mystery girl who has Peeta is... I tried to include some hints. Please review! **

Chapter Three

"Well, here we are. Back home again." Finnick murmured as he lead the small group consisting of him, Rue, Prim, Rory, Madge, and Marshall, into the mall through the front entrance, the place extremely dark, representing their state of mind perfectly. Even the glow in the dark lights cascading down to the Mockingjay fountain seemed to be dimmer. Looking around, blue eyes stopping on the fountain, Prim frowned. It felt so wrong to be back… so unbelievably wrong to be back without Katniss, her only family left. Now, officially, she was on her own. She had Rue and Rory, who were without a doubt her best friends in the mall who she knew would help her grieve while they did as well, but it wouldn't be the same at all.

"This… this… it all feels wrong." Prim said sadly, voice never rising above a whisper. Rue, Rory and Madge all gave a solemn nod in agreement, slowly walking up the stairs to the top floor, trying to navigate there way up successfully in the dark. When they got up, Madge lead them all up to the Bedding & Furniture store, everyone following, not wanting to be alone, lingering by the door in an awkward silence.

"We should all sleep in the Furniture store tonight." Madge declared, voice soft, trying not to wake her sleeping son. "Stay together… I think it would all be for the best." Again, like they had when Prim had spoken, Rue and Rory nodded in agreement. As Madge took the kids inside, she notice Finnick turned away, fiddling with a knife in his belt.

"I'll go down and guard the sewers." Finnick said to her as Madge put Marshall down. Quickly, the blonde girl turned around, eyes switching madly from looking at the ceiling, the yellow barely distinguishable in the dark, and the boy standing in front of her. After a few minutes, she shook her head, and before Finnick could spit out any words of protest, she opened her mouth.

"No, Finnick. It's really late, and with the Virus around…" Madge's words were soft as they were earlier, but she could barely be heard when she uttered the word 'Virus,' as it was the most disgusting word on the planet, quickly continuing. "I don't think many people will be out. With everything that's happened… we really need to stick together at the moment." Reluctantly, Finnick nodded, and followed her inside the Bedding & Furniture Store.

Quietly, Prim and Rue headed towards the bunk beds, Rue taking the top one and climbing up quickly, practically collapsing on the bed, taking off her boots as fast as she could and tossing them onto the ground below softly. Rory took the bed opposite them, taking off his boots and shoving the covers over himself, while Finnick took the large bed by the door in case of attackers, knife laying under his pillow… just in case. Climbing into the bed in the back corner of the room, Madge yawned, looking around.

"Night." Rory muttered, yawning himself, deliberately keeping off the 'good.' It didn't seem like the right thing to say, or even the appropriate thing to do. A few murmurs in response came back as he buried his face in his pillow, knowing very well that no one would be able to get a single wink of sleep after the nightmare of a journey they had just returned from. The rest seemed to know that as well, unable to shut their eyes, not saying a word, too afraid to say another thing.

One of the longest, most painful, sleepless nights at the mall had just begun.

xxxx

"I can't believe you were stupid enough to take that wrong turn. That's the last time I mistakenly let the idiot take the map." Cato muttered to Clove as the two, Finch behind them, arrived at their building, quickly going inside. Clove scowled at him, twirling the map around in her hands for a few seconds as she rolled her brown eyes, muttering something about him under her breath.

"Well, we're here now." Finch sighed, crossing her arms as she looked around the building. It looked like a normal office, but she had a strong feeling that something much more lay in the building, even if she had to turn it upside down. "I'll take the left side of the place, you two take the right, or split up, and one looks for Virus information, while the other looks for food. We need it."

"I'll look for food." Cato said back as soon as Finch had stopped speaking, shoving past Clove and Finch roughly and heading off, not bothering to even look back at them once. Clove, not bothering to say a word to Finch, went off on her own way, leaving Finch by herself to investigate. She looked around desks and drawers, finding nothing out of the ordinary, then going into a break room, opening a mini fridge that had long ago run out of power out of boredom, nothing in there but a bottle of Pepsi that way out of date, three rotting tomatoes, and a pack of yogurt that smelled absolutely disgusting, so she easily guessed it was off.

Shutting the mini fridge, Finch looked around the room and sighed. The rest of the room was just like any other break room, a tiny kitchen in the corner, and s small dusty table and chair set up, cobwebs forming in between the gaps in the seats, and a green, worn sofa. The only thing that could hold any significance to her that she spotted was a cupboard, and though she doubted there could be anything in there, she looked anyway. Nothing new… but as she shut it, she felt the cupboard move a little and creak… as if there wasn't a wall behind it for support.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she attempted to move the cupboard, using all of her energy. She had always been a small girl, not the strongest, preferring smarts over force, so trying to move it was quite a struggle. Grumbling something under her breath, she yanked open the doors of the cupboard, making it produce an awful creaky noise and shake awfully, and began to toss everything that was in the cupboards onto the ground, hoping it would make it weigh a little less. She didn't want to have to call back Clove and Cato and ask if they could help her with it… it would be embarrassing, in her opinion, and would put an end to her peace. She started to push the cupboard again, swearing loudly when she dropped it on her foot after letting go of it, hands burning from being scratched by the sharp wooden edges.

"Is there a problem, Finchy?" Cato stood at the door, her loud swearing having brought attention. She glared at him, and started to push the cupboard again. When she got absolutely nowhere, he started to snicker. "This is just pitiful to watch…" He said between snickers. "I could stay here for hours watching you… you're gonna get nowhere." Finch put down the cupboard once more, and gave him another glare.

"Oh, shut up!" Finch growled. "I think there's something behind here.. and if they've taken the liberty to do this, it's obvious that whatever is behind this cupboard is something they wanted to hide." She picked up the cupboard again, sliding it a few centimetres, but stopping again. Muttering something under his breath, Cato shoved Finch out of the way, almost knocking down into three ironing boards strung across the floor, and with ease, slid the cupboard out of the way… to reveal a door, the sign on it reading: WARNING – AUTHORISED PERSONNEL ONLY. Seeing the sign, Cato laughed.

"Secret passageway, huh? Weird. I didn't think they actually existed." Cato shrugged, Finch rolling her eyes, wanting to respond with _that's why you're not the brains of the tribe_, but didn't fancy receiving the punch in the face or strangling she could receive from saying it. He tried to open the door, but as expected, it was locked tightly. As he dragged something else in the room over to the door, the fridge, attempting to knock the door down with it, Clove appeared in the doorway.

"Found something?" Clove asked, sounding extremely bored. Finch and Cato both hoped she wouldn't be with the Mockingjays for good. The two of them knew extremely well that the mall had plenty of drama without her creating more of it for them… and she was the last person they wanted around after the awful tragedy had swept the tribe. They both knew she'd try to push their buttons about the deaths until the point where they wanted to kill her more than ever… something they wish someone would do already.

"Yeah… not that you care." Cato snapped at her as he shoved the fridge hard against the door. Nothing. Not even a tiny creak. Swearing under his breath, he tried three more times. Nothing once more. Sighing, he looked around the room for something else heavy, going over to the largest table in the room and slowly pushing it over to the door.

"I care! How can we distribute the Antidote if we don't find it? If we play our cards right, we'll be rich!" Clove said with a smirk, obviously planning. Rolling her eyes, Finch turned her attention back to the door as Cato shoved the table into it again. The door didn't come down, but it made the same awful creaking noise as Finch's cupboard did. After three more tries, the door was on it's last legs, and with one more shove, the whole thing came down.

"At last…" Finch said as Cato pulled the table away from the door, and the two, Clove behind, headed into the room. It was extremely dark, but one thing was producing a yellow glow, dimly lighting up the room. Curious to figure out where the glow was coming from, she walked further into the room, and before she could stop herself, gasped at the sight. In the middle of the room was a huge vat of Antidote.

"The Antidote… perfect…" Clove grinned slyly, placing a hand on the glass of the vat and staring at the liquid, greed in her eyes. It was more obvious than ever that she was definitely planning something. Finch stared at the vial, frowning a little, scolding herself in her head, knowing she shouldn't be too trusting of the vat just yet. She wasn't a gullible girl.

"It may not be it…" Finch said quietly as she fiddled with the pockets of her rust red jacket, eyes never leaving the vat. Unlike Cato and Clove's eyes, which were filled with greed and power at the sight of the vat, hers were filled with curiosity, desperately wanting to know more. Cato and Clove looked over at her, and simply rolled their eyes. "We can't trust it on colour alone." Quickly, Cato opened his bag and took of the lid of his water canteen and syphoned some of possible Antidote into it, taking a quick taste and grimacing.

"Yes. This is it. Perfect match. Tastes just the same – absolutely disgusting." Cato muttered. Finch looked down at the floor… if the Antidote was here… the formula had to be too! Clove yawned loudly and looked around, gaze ultimately going back to the vial once more.

"I'll go find some containers to store it in." Finch nodded, heading to the door, a little unsure of whether she should leave Cato and Clove alone together. While they hated eachother, they could easily be an unstoppable, deadly duo together if they got past their burning hatred of one another and started to scheme together. Cato yawned as she reached the door, gaze going from the vat to her.

"And while your out there, go look for some blankets. It's getting late, so we should stay the night." Cato told her, and Finch nodded. It was really stupid to travel through Panem in the dark, even if the streets were a little emptier with the Tracker-Jackers disbanded and most of the city down with the Virus, so she had to agree. As soon as Finch was gone and hopefully out of hearing range, Clove walked over to Cato and began to speak.

"Look, while I hate you and I wish you kicked the bucket with the bloody Virus, I think you're the only one who understands what we should really do with the Antidote…" Clove began, Cato crossing his arms, rolled his eyes as she started to speak again. "There's nothing standing in our way – just wait until old Finchy is asleep, or even better, take her out before she can even do a thing, and make a run for it with the Antidote." She said quickly, eyes gleaming with a mix of greed and excitement. "Those city kids will do anything to get a vial… and we can split the profits. You get ten percent, and I get the rest… for being the brains behind the operation, of course." Cato simply scoffed when she finished speaking, shaking his head.

"Just Finch standing in our- no, your way? I don't think so." Cato said sharply, seizing her by the shoulders tightly. "While I hate most of my so called tribe that is the Mockingjays, we just buried two of our members – one of them being my pregnant girlfriend, so I'm not going to leave just like that." Clove scowled… it was such a great plan, and he seemed to be the only person who thought the same way.

"But we would be-" Clove began, but was quickly cut off.

"Clove, can't you get the message?" Cato snapped, letting go of her roughly, almost throwing her to the ground when he let go of her. "I'd rather climb into a bath full of blood with a shark." Clove cursed at him under her breath, frowning as she stalked off to a corner of the room, slumping against the wall, wishing she had her weapons with her.

Outside, well out of the hearing range of Clove and Cato's… interesting conversation, Finch had found an empty water cooler that could probably carry half of the vat of Antidote, but no blankets. Sighing, she entered an office, hoping there'd be some more storage for the Antidote in there, and opened the first cupboard she saw, strangely filled with what she wouldn't suspect to be in a cupboard in an office – blankets. She quickly shifted the empty water cooler into one hand and grabbed the blanket pile, preparing to shut the cupboard when a bunch of drawers caught her eye.

Putting the blankets and water cooler down on the floor, she began to rustle through the drawers, finding nothing interesting in them until she got to the very bottom of the last one, a cream-coloured folder with a photograph of a white rose printed onto it, bringing her back to the early days of the investigation at the Justice Building. Big bold lettering at the top of the page read: PROJECT ROSE – FEATHER MOUNTAIN BRANCH: ACTIVE. Brows furrowing, she opened the folder, quickly gasping when she saw what was inside.

The contents of the folder was none other than the formula for the Antidote.

Reading it over quickly, she crammed it into her backpack and picked up the blankets and water cooler, prepared to go back to Clove and Cato and look for another container in the morning, definitely not going to tell them about what she had just found. She wasn't going to tell anyone. Not even Thresh. She didn't want to put him in danger. The formula, for now, was her little secret…

xxxx

Peeta was still stuck in the mansion of the mystery girl, who had gradually lowered her weapon as he had talked to her all about the Mockingjays… and Katniss, but leaving out most of the parts of them being a couple, just a few vague references here and there. When he finished the story, keeping his extremely tired hands up, he watched the girl carefully, who was now perched on the edge of a white sofa. If he tried to make a run for it, he knew he'd be shot.

"That was definitely long… like you said… and rather interesting." The mystery girl got up and started to walk around the room, not putting down her gun. He had no idea if she was a good shot or not, but he didn't want to take his chances. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Peeta went to speak, the girl cut in before he had the chance. "I don't believe a word about the Antidote part, though." She snapped.

"It is, I assure you. We found a few samples at a facility, and tested it on one of our own that came down with it. He lived." Peeta said to her quickly, but softly. "We travelled quite a long way to find out some more clues… and at a great expense." He mumbled, looking down at the floor for a split second, trying to piece out his words carefully. "What we have is real, it really is. If… if… if you don't believe my word, come back and help us heal the city." He muttered, hoping it was the right choice of words, though it was very risky. He sensed there was something underneath about the mystery girl, and wanted to find out what it was. "What's your name?"

"I do not need a tribe, I have everything right here… and I do not give my name to peddlers of false hope." The mystery girl told him sharply, beginning to circle around him like a vulture. Suddenly, she let out a mocking laugh, staring at him. "What's in it for me, joining your stupid ensemble? Will it help you get that girl, Kat… Kat… Katniss, that's it, that you mentioned so much when you were telling your story?" She let out another mocking laugh as she spoke again. "You kept saying Katniss and I used to lead our tribe.. Katniss was… Katniss and I were.. What, did she dump you, or something?" She sniggered, turning away. Peeta took a few steps back, swallowing another lump that had formed in his throat, not looking at her.

"Actually, she's dead." Peeta said, much harsher than he had meant at first. The girl quickly turned around. "If you kill me, you'll be doing me a favour …I'll finally be with her." The girl had a little bit of sympathy in her eyes, slowly putting her gun down all together.

"Rosella." The girl said quietly. "My name is Rosella."

xxxx


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thank you to Lya200 and Juliet's Shadow for reviewing! I hope you enjoy this chapter :) **

Chapter Four

The next morning, the group, excluding Peeta, sat in the café with the Antidote Cato, Clove and Finch had retrieved from the building the night earlier, the formula the redhead had retrieved still a secret, a few doses laid out for the tribe on the table. The rest was still in the containers, a small part tucked away for Finch and Thresh, their closest thing to a chemist in this world, to analyse if a formula didn't show up. As they heard the sound of footsteps, all heads turned to the stairs, relieved to find Peeta coming up the stairs, a girl with messy brown hair, green eyes, and a white rose sticking out of her belt joining him.

"Peeta!" Madge exclaimed, jumping up from her seat and going to hug him tightly. When she finally fully noticed the presence for the mystery girl, she quickly pulled away. "Who's this?" She asked, a bit of unintentional rudeness in her voice that soon embarrassed her. Peeta looked over at Rosella, and then back at the group. He didn't smile. He couldn't now. It felt wrong. Very wrong.

"This is Rosella. I…. met her while I was searching for my building." Peeta stated, deciding to keep out the point that he was held at gunpoint by her for a few hours and almost killed… it probably wouldn't sit well. Peeta sat down next to Madge, Rosella sitting next to him, and the whole group quickly drank their dose of Antidote…. just in case.

"But don't get too friendly around here." Cato snapped at Rosella. "We have to vote you in. At this point, we could still throw you out." The group gave a glare at him, wishing he would just disappear. They felt bad for him about Glimmer and their baby, but with the way he was acting, it didn't stop them from wanting to strangle him. Before anyone could add to the throw-out discussion, Thresh quickly spoke.

"How about we talk about something useful… like what are we going to do with the Antidote?" Thresh asked. He felt extremely defeated about the whole Feather Mountain expedition, which had taken two lives that he felt semi-responsible for now, and they hadn't found the formula. Where else could it be? The question gave it a headache. What if the formula was burnt with the building it was in, burnt by an unsuspecting Antidote that wanted to keep the kids from the truth? Truth. More kids wanted to spill blood and conquer the world than look for answers.

"Easy. Sell it." Clove declared. "They'll do anything for a bottle… it's the perfect way to go about it." She added with a smirk. The group, all except for Cato, sighed and shook their heads.

"Yeah, it's the perfect way to go about it if you want us to end up rich and lonely millionaires with everyone else dead or dying." Finnick muttered, folding his arms. Peeta nodded in agreement.

"We're not selling it." Peeta simply said. "We need to think of a proper way of distributing this stuff… we can't have a bunch of kids in our mall infecting the place… and we'll probably find more of them on the street." He said, about to continue speaking when Cato opened his mouth.

"Listen, moron – we need to go the smart way with this stuff. It's not going to last forever, and if we can't find the formula, we may as well we getting a profit from what we have. It's a rich man's world… even more these days." Cato said to the group, who just shook their heads in annoyance.

"Cato, shut up! Peeta is right – we need to distribute the stuff for free. There's kids out there who have nothing, and they really need it." Madge sighed. Had he completely forgotten about the time when he got the Virus? It seemed so long ago… but it had only been about a month since it all happened. Cato simply laughed in response.

"Well, look at this!" Cato began with a smirk. "Katniss isn't even cold in her grave and you already want to jump into his bed!" Madge stood up, looking visibly hurt by the remark.

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" Madge screamed… but no one responded. She looked around the group, just shaking her head. "THAT IS NOT TRUE!" She cried, storming out of the café. Cato looked down at the table, snickering, proud of what he had done. Prim stood up, sighing.

"I'll go see if she's okay." Prim said quietly, walking out of the café herself. Finnick watched on, only having one thought in his head that seemed to matter at that point: it seemed like the future of the Mockingjays was going to be pretty much like the past few months!

The café was silent for a few minutes, no one having any idea what to say after Madge's storm out, simply annoyed that it seemed like it was all back to the beginning again. Finally, furious at Cato for upsetting Madge, his only things close to a family alongside Marshall, Peeta began to speak, arms folded, not looking up at the two he was addressing, knowing if he did, it would probably make him feel even sicker.

"You two are unbelievably selfish!" Peeta muttered to Cato and Clove, who didn't seem to care at all, just simply shrugged at the comment. As soon as Clove finally opened her mouth to speak, Rue quickly interjected.

"Peeta… if we decide to go Clove and Cato's way of selling the Antidote…" Rue began, though she knew it wasn't very likely they'd let the two have their way… "What if no one has anything… but they really need it?" She asked quietly, immediately knowing it was a mistake when Clove started to speak.

"Well, sucks to be them, doesn't it? There's one less person in this city we need to care about." Clove said quickly, everyone giving her a disgusted look. "Only the strong survive here…" She continued, the disgusted looks staying on her. Finnick, before things could get really ugly, a loud argument not on his list of things he wanted at all, decided to bring up another subject.. one that Cato and Clove could hopefully keep their mouths shut about.

"Well, about the whole distribution thing… we don't have enough to support the whole city, do we, and no formula's shown up, has it?" Finnick questioned, Thresh giving a nod, Finch continuing to keep quiet. The secret would be let out in time… but on her terms.

"We'll have to look harder than we thought." Finch said, just to make sure it looked like nothing was going, on but she doubted. She was quite a skilled liar, and knew how to keep what she wanted a secret. "I thought something would've turned up by now." She got up from her seat. "Excuse me from the meeting. I'm going to go check out some files to see if I can find anymore clues." She left for her Workshop, no one else saying a word.

xxxx

Finch sat cross-legged on her bed, eyes on the life-changing and life-saving paper in front of her, completely zoned out from all of the loud snapping, screaming and discussing in the café. She had been up half of the night, even though she had wanted more than anything to get some sleep, reading the formula to the Antidote over and over as if it were notes to study in the old days. Now, she could recite it blindfolded and at gunpoint with no fault. It was perfectly memorised in her mind.

Knowing almost fully that everyone was in the café, that no one would catch her with the precious paper, or doing what she was going to do with it, she pulled out a dark blue coloured lighter from her pants pocket, and once looking around one more time, just in case, happy by the noise of a loud protest in the café, confirming once more that the whole group were still in there, she positioned the paper and set fire to one corner, watching with a sly smile as the flames engulfed the paper, the secrets of the page erased by the flames.

"The formula… now no one but me will ever find it…" Finch said to herself, amber eyes locked on the burning paper. She was now the only person in the world who knew how to make the Antidote…

xxxx

The next day, much to the annoyance of Clove and Cato, who were still adamant that selling the Antidote that was the way to go, Peeta sent out a few small groups to distribute the Antidote – him and Rosella, Prim and Finnick, and Rue and Rory, leaving a little left for Finch and Thresh to analyse if the Antidote formula didn't show up, all still oblivious to Finch's 'little' secret regarding the matter. Until she had managed to make up a vial, Finch was deciding to keep the whole thing on the quiet. It was important to be one step ahead in a place like the mall most of the time.

Prim, Finnick standing by her side, stood in one of the many streets of Panem, the cool, cool breeze biting at their skin, even through their jackets, handing out the Antidote they had been given. Virus-ridden kids, as they had been for them past month and a half, swarmed around everywhere like insects, just waiting for death to come to them. Seeing the desperate, grey-haired, wrinkle-covered, blood dribbling out of their mouths, Prim's heart ached. She didn't want anyone else to die, no matter what they had done, more than ever after losing her sister… something she still found hard to believe, though she had to wake up everyday and face that it was really true – now, her family was all gone.

"Here you are." Prim said quietly to a girl, grey hair ragged and dirty, clothes even more filthy, obviously badly infected with the Virus and desperate, handing her a paper cup filled with Antidote, which she took quickly with an extremely shaky hand. She downed the lot in one go, and despite the disgusting taste of the things, she licked her lips eagerly, not wanting to miss a single drop of the life-saving liquid. After she finished it, she put down the cup, and took something out of the tiny blue backpack that was in just as bad of a shape as her, which was quickly revealed to be an apple. A single, shiny, plump apple that made both Prim and Finnick's mouths water.

"Thank you…" The Virus-ridden girl said to Prim, voice just as shaky as her hand had been, holding out the apple to her. "I know it isn't much, but take this as a thank you." Prim's eyes madly shifted between the apple, that she would absolutely love to take and bite into frantically, the juice dancing on her tongue… but by the look of the sick, sad-eyed, gaunt girl, she couldn't take the apple from her, no matter how much she would love one. The girl couldn't escape the Virus to be taken by starvation, like many kids in the city had been in the past few months.

"No, no, I can't." Prim said to her, watching as her face fell at the comment. The girl extended her hand out even more, it shaking madly like it had when Prim had given her the Antidote. Prim sighed quietly… she couldn't walk away thinking she could be potentially be responsible for another death in the city. There had been too much death already, only a few people she could actually name – her parents. Marvel. Enobaria. Glimmer. Katniss…. and there would be many more to follow when the Antidote ran out and if they couldn't find a formula… they couldn't heal the whole of Panem with stuff Finch, Cato, and Clove had brought back.

"Please." The sick girl murmured, sounding as if she was pleading. By her tone, and knowing she'd never give up, Prim, extremely reluctant, took the apple. "Thank you, again. I'll never be able to repay you." She turned away, almost losing her balance as she started to watch away. Prim watched her walk away sadly, the feeling of the apple in her hand making her feel extreme guilt…

xxxx

Finch had set off early in the morning for the woods, armed with a knife just in case, a book she had found in the Antiques Shop (that Cato had moved out of, it too painful to stay in the room he and Glimmer had shared, and relocating to the Tool Shop that now looked like a very dark and gloomy cave) that was about plant and root identification, a magnifying glass, and her backpack to search for the plants and roots needed to make up the Antidote. To her surprise, it was revealed it stemmed from parts of 5 major plants, and 2 types of roots, most of them she had already found, only one left. Then, it was off to her workshop, to begin the process of attempting to make the life-saving liquid.

She made her way through the trees, trying to avoid becoming entangled in branches and tripped by roots that looked more like snakes, looking around the forest carefully, eyes going from the grounds to her book frantically as she made her way. Suddenly, her eyes locked on a small plants that was just about engulfed in shrubbery, the exact match of the last plant she needed before she headed off back to the mall to get started.

"Perfect!" Finch grinned to herself as she kneeled down carefully and took her sample. Once safely storing it in a back within her backpack, she got up again, and began to make her way back to the mall, praying that she had gotten everything right…

xxxx

Three long rowboats, ones that had taken quite a long time to secure and patch up, carefully glided through the oceans, land approaching rapidly. The Elite couldn't be happier to be back in the homeland of their god, and even better, in the historical sight of his burial. The Great One grinned as his followers disembarked, him carefully walking across the sand to the front of his group, hoods of their purple robes down in respect to their great god.

"Oh, Marvel! We have heard your calls to complete your fine quest, and here we are! Oh mighty one, oh our god… we will avenge you and end the impure that stand in our way!" The Great One called out. "We will find the Grand Family and bring them to our cause! We will honour you until the very end!"

"MARVEL! MARVEL! MARVEL!" The Elite chanted, chants of their god's name echoing through the skies, chanting for what felt for hours and hours…

xxxx

It was fast approaching evening again in Panem, but the day was certainly not ending for Johanna. Sighing, the dark-haired girl shut up the pig pen and looked around for Marina who was meant to be helping her, her eyes instead locking on someone else. Annie, light blue jacket on, attempting to sneak inside after one of her many walkabouts in the city for the day, something Johanna had become very tired of.

"ANNIE!" Johanna shouted from her spot by the pig pen, alerting the attention of the girl quickly, who looked like a deer in the headlights at being caught. "You were in the city, weren't you?" She sighed, and Annie, knowing better than to lie to Johanna, nodded, looking down at the ground. "Haven't I told you to stay away from the city? It's infected with the Virus!" She muttered, folding her arms.

"It was lonely around here… so I decided to take a walk." Annie mumbled. "And the city's busy, more than usual… a tribe found the Antidote… the real stuff!" Johanna simply scoffed, shaking her head. She'd heard all the tales of slimy street vendors injecting false hopes in kids, and she didn't believe a single word of it.

"Annie, there's been stories going around for ages.. it's all fake. Just another shady trader." Johanna turned away from her and started to walk away from the pig pen. "Go get cleaned up, you're on dinner duty with me and Marina in the inn." Annie nodded, and walked off quickly, just as Johanna spotted the aqua-haired girl.

"Annie went walk-off again?" Marina asked with a sigh. "You can't seem to keep her away from the city, can you?" Johanna muttered something under her breath and just shook her head. "I don't get the attraction to it." She said as the two approached the inn they ran, about to go inside the packed building when they heard a scream.

"JOHANNA! MARINA!" Annie screamed in utter horror. Quickly the two girls ran in the sound of the scream, to find Annie running towards her in tears. The two looked at her and both took a step back. Johanna missed it when she was talking to her before, since she wasn't close… but now it was clear. Greying hair, wrinkling face. It was obvious what was happening to her.

Annie had contracted the Virus.

xxxx


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Thank you to Lya200 for reviewing! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please review! **

Chapter Five

By the late evening, all of the Antidote the Mockingjays had (the exception being the small sample left for Finch and Thresh to attempt to analyse if the Antidote formula didn't show up) had been distributed around the city and the bunch that had set to hand it out were returning home for the day. Peeta and Rosella arrived back first, immediately going up to the café that they had immediately smelt dinner from when they entered the mall, eagerly digging in, when Finnick and Prim, who had found Rue and Rory came back about fifteen minutes later, hands filled to the brim with gifts of thanks that they couldn't turn back to the sick kids they had served, ranging from canned asparagus to grapes.

"So it's all gone now?" Cato asked the four as they came up the steps to the café, depositing the gifts of thanks of the counter in the kitchen before joining the group. They gave him a nod, making him just shake his head. "Of course. You'd still have the bulk of it if you went with my way of distributing it." He muttered, looking down at his food. "If you think I'm just being selfish, look at it this way – in the old days, doctors didn't give a single damn about what state you were in, you still had to pay for your medicine. They wanted to get rich, not run a charity. Why should now be any different?"

"Times have changed, Cato." Peeta said with a sigh, not caring about a word the other boy had just said. No matter what he said about the Antidote distribution, he'd still think Cato was still trying to get it done his way out of selfishness and greed. "Over half of the world's already gone from Virus Wave One – we have to heal as many people as we can now that we have a cure, no matter how much they may or may not have. We can't have the whole city dying out because of someone's greed!" He persisted, the whole group nodding in agreement, except for Cato and Clove, who were still stuck on their way.

"You saw what that guy and the little brats brought back from one day… where you blew all of our Antidote in one go…" Clove began with a sigh, looking around at the group, who, as always when she spoke, were glaring at her. "We could get that sort of stuff all the time! How do you think the Tracker-Jackers got so rich?" She muttered, pushing away her empty plate and folding her arms. She knew she wasn't going to get used to the food anytime soon. No private, special ration for herself, no supervising the food store and deciding what luxuries to take for herself, no foods that would be classified as 'luxurious' in their new world… just nothing…

"Oh, I don't know… let me take a guess…" Finnick began, sarcasm just about dripping from his voice. "By killing and maiming as many kids as you could find and stealing their stuff, threatening them into handing over the good stuff, and taking slaves to collect it?" He snapped, being flashed back to the awful Tribal Gathering where he and Rue had been deceived by The Nomads, taken as slaves, and then bought by the Tracker-Jackers. Clove simply glared at him, Finnick about to respond when Thresh came out and joined them in the café.

"Have you found anything on the formula?" Peeta immediately asked, before Finnick could reply to Clove. Thresh sighed and shook his head, taking a plate of dinner and sitting down next to the leader.

"No." Thresh sighed, taking a bite of food. "The Feather Mountain files stated that the Antidote was in a major building in the city… and since we've come back empty-handed so far, I'm pretty sure that the formula, sadly, was burnt down with one of the buildings the adults got rid off." The group nodded, all eyes going back down to their plates. "I can't find Finch anywhere, so I haven't been able to ask her if she has any supplies… but I've made a list of things we need to analyse the Antidote."

"We'll starting scavenging tomorrow." Peeta declared, Thresh nodding in answer. "I say we check the labs and government buildings first. I'd check my room.." He paused for a second, referring to the Pharmacy. "But it's been stripped bare already." He said quietly, looking down at the table. Again, Thresh nodded, just as he saw the door to the sewer door open. Finch.

"You're back." Thresh got up, pushing his plate away, having not been than hungry in the first place, and went down the stairs to see her, trying to figure out what she had been doing. She didn't seem to be carrying anything except for a worn book that he couldn't see the title off, and it didn't seem like her backpack was full to them brim. "Need any help with anything?" He asked, deciding not to ask where she'd been. It was her business, after all..

"No, but thanks." Finch said quickly, gripping the book in her hand tightly and walking past him extremely fast, darting down the hall in a blur. Thresh raised an eyebrow, watching her until he couldn't see her anymore. By how fast she had responded and gone off… it seemed like she was hiding something… but what, exactly?

xxxx

As soon as breakfast was finished, Thresh and Peeta set off to the first government building, the one Peeta had been heading to before he had been drawn to the mansion and held at gunpoint by Rosella. Thresh was going to go with Finch at first, but she told him firmly, making sure to hide the state of the room by blocking the doorway for some reason, that she was busy and couldn't go. Thresh shrugged it off at first – she was probably working on one of her many zany inventions and would show him the finished project later on, but then his mind went to last night at dinner. She certainly had a secret, that was for sure.

"Here it is." Peeta announced, looking down at his worn map and then at the door of the lab.

Thresh nodded, and the two quickly kicked the door down, it as weak as the one Peeta had found in Rosella's mansion. The two looked around the labs, Thresh, trying to remain a little, searched a little for the Antidote, but found nothing relating to the subject. Around two hours later, the two had completely searched the building, leaving with over half of the supplies they needed, deciding to head back to a government building further into the city to search for the rest. The journey was relatively peaceful, until they were a few streets away from the building. There, they were approached by a swarm of extremely sick kids that recognised Peeta from the day before.

"You.. you have the Antidote…" The boy that was leading the group of ill children said between coughs, pointing to Peeta. "My sister got some yesterday. I need it… please… please…" He continued on, almost collapsing on the ground as he coughed again, blood spraying all over the floor, a few droplets onto Thresh's boots, making him step back. Looking at the bunch of ill kids, Peeta had absolutely no idea what to say.

"We don't have any." Thresh said quickly, though the words were a struggle to say. Peeta stepped back to stand beside him once more, the kids stepping forward to get close to them again, all coughing, sneezing, stumbling, looking extremely awful, about to collapse, bringing them back to the days when Cato got the Virus, and only saved him just in time. Now, Thresh had second thoughts about saving him, and would've rather grabbed a random kid off the street to test on, because of his burning hatred of him. He'd hated Cato ever since they had first met many months ago… when Glimmer had still been alive. It still seemed so strange that she was gone.

"Please…" The boy cried, shivering a little. "You've got to help us! You have the Antidote!" He sounded as if he was on the brink of tears. "Help us… please…"

"I'll give you anything! Anything you want!" A girl, greying hair flying in all directions stepped forward, wrapping her beige cardigan around her tightly, delving deep into the bag she had on her shoulder. "Look… I have some baked beans.." She held out the can, eyes full of desperation. Another boy came forward, digging into his pocket.

"I have a Swiss Army Knife." The boy declared, holding it forward like the girl had done with the baked beans. "Take it, it's yours! We'll give you anything… absolutely anything for the Antidote." He begged.

"Hold it, hold it, hold it right there…" Peeta raised his hands, stepping back. "We want to help you, we really do, but we can't. The Antidote… it's gone… all gone." The ghastly, aged faced of the kids turned into scowls, teeth baring.

"Liars! Greedy pigs!" The girl that had held out the baked beans snarled. "They want to keep it all to themselves!" She hissed, Peeta and Thresh stepping back a little more, arms folded.

"He's telling the truth!" Thresh said firmly, looking at the kids. "Look… you should go. We don't have anything." The kids stepped forward following them, not believing a word of what Thresh or Peeta were saying.

"Well, what's in the bag, then?" The boy that had first spoke growled. "If you aren't liars… you'll show us…" Thresh looked down at his worn back, and began to quickly cook up a plan in his mind. He made a gesture with his hands for the Virus-ridden bunch to come closer.

"You want to see what's in the bag? Come closer… yes, that's it…" Thresh looked over at Peeta as the kids came towards him. "Run Peeta…" he said in a strangely calm tone, the boy bolting, Thresh racing behind him, the kids screaming at them.

"HEY! WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE! WE'RE GOING TO GET YOU!" The kids shouted, racing after them, Thresh and Peeta sprinting faster, determined to get to the mall as fast as possible to warn the group that some trouble was on the way…

xxxx

Finch sat cross-legged on the floor of her room, repeating the process of making the Antidote in her mind as she ground up her plants and roots brought back from the woods the day before with her mortar and pestle, completely focussed on the work. She kept her eyes on the mix that she was creating for about fifteen minutes more, working hard, until she heard the sound of shouting from Thresh and Peeta. Sliding the mortar and pestle to one side, she walked outside quickly.

"Finnick!" Peeta called out to the sea green eyed boy who was sitting in the café fixing up a fishing net. Immediately, he looked down at who had addressed him, getting up from his chair. "Can you get the grille down? We have a mob of really angry kids who think we're hiding the Antidote from them…" Finnick quickly nodded, and began to get the grille down, fiddling madly with the levers as some of the other members of the group came out to find out what all the drama was about.

"What's going on?!" Madge asked frantically, holding Marshall tightly as she peered out of her room in Kitchenware, Finnick continuing to fiddle with the levers of the grille, swearing loudly when nothing happened.

"Angry mob of Virus kids… they think we're hiding the Antidote." Finnick told her as fast as he could, barely understandable. "And to top it all off, the grille's stuck!" He groaned. Thresh ran up the stairs to help him lower it, the two managing to get it down as they began to hear loud shouts and screams outside.

"Well, that's where charity gets you." Cato sat with a smug smile, sitting down in the café, watching the Virus kids approach the grille, rattling the bars madly, screeching as loud as they possibly could in their state. "If you went my way, this wouldn't be happening!" He smirked.

"WE WANT THE ANTIDOTE! WE WANT THE ANTIDOTE!" The kids chanted. The Mockingjays looked at the grille and sighed, trying to figure out what to do, the chants continuing on and on…

xxxx

"Look, we won't be able to hold them out forever…" Peeta sighed, looking at the screaming kids again, gaze darting back and forth between the angry mob and the small group he had assembled – consisting of Finnick, Finch, Thresh, Rosella, and Clove. Clove sighed, fiddling with the knives in her belt. This is what she had come to? The mall was obviously not better than the hotel, in her standards. She missed power… having actual power.

"Can't we just put them out of their misery? Better die sooner than later." Clove muttered. "THAT'S RIGHT, YOU'RE GOING TO DIE, THERE ISN'T ANY LEFT, IDIOTS!" She shouted at the grille. No one else spoke a word, still trying to think, thought it was extremely hard with all the noise in the background. "We have to do something… the gates won't hold forever!"

"Liars! We know you have it… stop being greedy and give it to us!" Someone screeched in the crowd, rattling the bars madly. It was obvious that no one was going to just walk away… at least without not putting up a huge fight! Suddenly, the whole grille went quiet, and stepped back, making room for a girl who looked around eighteen, brown hair swept back in a messy ponytail, it obvious by her grotesque scowl that she meant business. To top it all off, she was armed, an axe in her hand. Finnick immediately recognised her – Johanna from the farm… but why was she there? She looked normal…

"HEY! Open this thing up!" Johanna demanded. "Finnick! Remember me?" Johanna muttered. Finnick immediately nodded, and Johanna gave him a strange smirk. "Look, open this thing up. I need the Antidote… for a friend… for Annie, you met her, right?" Finnick nodded again, looking down at the ground. Annie? Finnick remember her well. She had gotten the Virus? No…

"Sorry, Johanna… but we can't open it." Finnick said slowly. "We don't have anymore… it's all gone." Johanna rattled the bars, scowling at him.

"Are you serious? Are you kidding me? This isn't funny, you know!" Johanna snapped. No one responded. "Fine. I didn't want to have to do this… but me and my friends are coming in, most definitely… EVEN IF WE HAVE TO TEAR THIS BLOODY GRILLE DOWN! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!" The next people to speak completely shocked them… Cato and Rory.

"Hold it right there!" Cato said quickly. In his and Rory's hands was a huge container full of what looked like the Antidote! It couldn't be… could it?

"We found some…" Rory said, looking down at the container, extremely proud of his job. Peeta looked extremely puzzled, but decided to go along with it, thinking it better than a fight. "The Antidote. The real stuff."

"Yeah, we did. Form an orderly line, and we'll open the gates." Cato said to the mob, who at the sight of the Antidote, immediately did as he said. He looked over at Finch. "Finch? The gates?" Finch nodded, and opened the gates, and quickly, Cato and Rory gave out the Antidote… but where on Earth had it come from?

"Well, this is a nice surprise. From what you told me… your little mob sounded somewhat decent… I didn't want to tear them all apart." Johanna said to Finnick with a smirk, looking down at her vial. Finnick gave her a small smile.

"I hope Annie gets better…" Finnick simply mumbled back, and she left, As well as the rest of the mob after they had been served. Rory looked down at the container, still extremely proud of his work.

"I never knew a twelve year old brat like yourself could actually be this smart…" Cato said to Rory, gaze darting in between the boy and the Antidote. "But I was the one that made it all work, of course."

"What is that stuff, anyway?" Rosella asked quickly. "I really thought we were done for…" She said, walking around the Mockingjay fountain slowly. Surely they hadn't somehow conjured some Antidote out of thin air…

"Oh… just some water, herbs, things from the Food Store, and some yellow poster paint for the colour." Rory said proudly. The whole group except for Cato glared at him.

"What? It was smart!" Cato muttered. To his surprise, Finnick slumped down against the wall and began to laugh. "I can't believe they bought it!"

"Oh, you idiot!" Finnick said as he laughed. "Johanna's going to be furious when she finds out that stuff's fake… and she'll want revenge…" He continued to laugh. "Enjoy your life while you still have it Cato… because you're screwed!" Finnick walked upstairs quickly, still laughing.

"Great… Just great.." Peeta sighed, shaking his head. This just had to happen… didn't it?!

xxxx


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Thank you to Lya200 and Juliet's Shadow for your reviews... I hope you enjoy this chapter! Who Rosella is will be revealed eventually, but not for quite awhile...**

Chapter Six

Johanna returned to her farm as fast as she could, desperately hoping in her mind that she wasn't too late for Annie. The Virus wasn't meant to take their victim after two days of infection… but then again it hadn't been infecting the kids until recently either. Was the second wave of the Virus even more cruel and unforgiving than the first? Johanna hoped not… it was bad enough already. The thought of her mother laying on her bed in the last few months before the adults were really gone forever, pale and weak, blood frothing from her mouth as she died made her skin crawl with horror and disgust… she didn't want Annie to suffer the same fate.

She didn't pause once when she finally arrived at the farm, not to answer questions about the city's state, the Antidote, or how bad Annie was (she had refused to let anyone but herself or Marina see the sick girl), not to check up on anything, all her thoughts were just on Annie and hopefully saving her from the horrifying demise that had taken the adults. Making her way up to the very top level of the inn, where most of her medium-sized group slept, she walked down the halls, not bothering to even look at anyone else, instead keeping her sight straight on the door at the very end of the hall.

Opening it, she looked over at Annie, wrapped up in almost all of the spare blankets the inn had, looking as ill and old as she did when Johanna had left, slowly but surely getting worse. Marina sat by her bedside, pressing a damp cloth to her forehead to try and bring down her fever. Slowly, Annie sat up and Marina gave her a small blue bowl, which she began to cough up blood into. The aging… the fever… the coughing up blood… Annie was definitely one of the Virus' victims.

"Did you get what she needs?" Marina asked as Annie laid down again. Johanna nodded, and the aqua-haired girl stood up and let Johanna sit down in her place, quickly unscrewing the cap of the Antidote. Marina leaned against the wall, watching on miserably. She, Johanna and Annie had been friends for years before the Virus had struck, and it would shatter her if Annie died.

"Johanna… I'm sorry…" Annie croaked as Marina took a mug off Annie's bedside table and passing it to Johanna, who filled it with some of the Antidote. "I shouldn't have gone to the city…"

"You shouldn't have… but it's done now." Johanna muttered as she held out the mug for Annie. "Just drink this, it'll help you get better." Annie nodded, and gratefully took the mug in aging, shaking hands. She downed it quickly, sliding the mug over to her beside table and grimacing.

"It tastes funny." Annie wrinkled her nose and laid down again, coughing a little, but not bringing up and blood. Johanna grabbed the cloth and pressed it to her forehead, sighing and shaking her head.

"I know… but it'll help you get better." Johanna said with a sigh, pressing the cloth to her forehead a little harder. "I promised your parents before they passed that I'd look after you… and that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm making sure of it…." She wasn't going to break that promise… she refused to. She desperately hoped the Antidote was real, though in the back of her mind she didn't think it was at all…

xxxx

Peeta sat in his room in the Pharmacy, thinking about the day. What on Earth were Cato and Rory thinking, making the fake Antidote? It had definitely saved their skins… for now… but what would happen when the Virus-ridden kids… and the axe-wielding Johanna figured out it was fake? Then, they definitely wouldn't be safe... all hell would break loose, even worse than just the little taste of it they had gotten before the fake Antidote had been distributed. Suddenly, his mind went to Katniss… what would she do in this situation? He missed her so much… he didn't feel like the true leader of the Mockingjays. That had always been her job.

"I thought I'd find you in here…" Peeta looked up at the voice of Clove, giving her a scowl. She walked further into his room, leaning on the wall by his bed. She wrinkled her nose when she got a look at his face. "Why the sour look? You're always so sour these days… always moping…" She mocked, taking a knife out her belt and twirling it around to do something other than stare at him.

"Clove, seriously… just go." Peeta said, leaning against the headboard of his bed, arms folded, not wanting to listen to anything she had to say, especially in the state of mind he was in. "I'm not in the mood for any of your games." Clove, obviously not getting the message, or just deciding not to listen, went over and sat on his bed, rolling her brown eyes.

"Oh, I just wanted to know how things are going with your new girlfriend." Clove smirked, eyes on her knife. Peeta sighed and shook his head at her, though she didn't see. "What's her name again? Rosie? Ruby? Oh… Rosella. Yeah, Rosella…" She muttered to herself. Peeta glared at her, though again, she couldn't see it.

"Rosella isn't my girlfriend." Peeta snapped, not bothered in changing his tone. She didn't deserve it, and he was highly regretting that he saved Clove from the Tracker-Jacker rebels. With them being so busy finishing her off, he could've easily bolted out of the place unnoticed.. but for some reason he couldn't even remember, he played hero and helped her out. What an awful decision… "We're only acquaintances… and we'll just be friends… at most…" He muttered.

"Oh… yeah… you're still miserable about Katniss being blown to bits, aren't you?" Clove said casually, as if she was just telling Peeta about the weather in the city. Finally, she looked up at him, and smirked, not caring about the grotesque glare on his face at all. She moved closer to him, so close she was practically sitting on his lap, placing one hand on his cheek, making him even more annoyed. "You know, if you need a replacement for her… an even better one… I'm here.." She said to him, pressing her lips to his.

"Get out of my room!" Peeta shouted at her. Rolling her eyes, Clove got off his bed, and began to walk to the door. "I will never want to be with you. I don't want a selfish girl that will be satisfied only when she can rule the whole world… at the moment… I just wasn't to be left alone!" Clove's face turned sour, giving him a death glare.

"Think what you wish…" Clove began, clenching her fists. "But if you cross me, Peeta… I may not be as 'understanding' as last time." She said through gritted teeth, storming out of his room. Peeta stuffed a pillow over his head, wondering what on Earth would come next…

xxxx

The next morning, the whole group, not including Finch, who no one, not even Thresh, could get out of her room, were gathered by the Mockingjay fountain for a meeting about what would become of them after the fake Antidote drama of the day earlier… at the moment, though, to Peeta's sadness, it looked like his only choice was to declare to the group that they'd have to get packing and leave the mal before the vengeful city ill kids (and Johanna) could come after them.

"So, what do you suggest, wise leader?" Clove, who had been increasingly ruder and snappier to Peeta since their spit in the Pharmacy the night before muttered at him, walking around the Mockingjay fountain slowly, just so she could have something to do. Peeta sighed, looking around. By how Finch had full-on refused every single time they asked her to come down, he'd have no choice but to start the meeting without her.

"Sadly, just because of safety reasons… thanks to Cato and Rory, we have no choice but to leave the mall as soon as possible." Peeta announced, the whole group reacting in a variety of different ways – most of them quite unpleasant. Madge stepped forward, looking at Peeta with sad eyes. They couldn't leave the mall.. it was their home! So much had happened in it in such a short amount of time… Marshall's birth… Marvel's death… the Virus, killing Enobaria and almost Cato… the Mutts attacking… they couldn't just leave it to be trashed!

"Leave the mall?! But it's our home!" Prim cried. Sighing, Peeta gave her a nod. He didn't want to leave either, they had to understand… but after Cato and Rory's screw up, they had absolutely no choice but to go.

"I know, I don't want to go either, but the mob will be angrier than ever after they discover Cato and Rory's Antidote was a fraud." Peeta explained, pacing around, unable to stop himself. "It's best we go as soon as possible. They could catch on at any moment." Madge was about to open her mouth to process, but to everyone's surprise, Finch spoke next.

"I don't think there is any reason to go." Finch simple stated, everyone's gaze turning to her. In her hand was a tube holding the Antidote, something she had finally perfected over a long, gruelling night. Everyone raised an eyebrow at the item in her hand. Peeta sighed, and shook his head, not thinking anything of it, while Thresh was beginning to connect the dots… this was why she was being so secretive!

"You dirty rat! That's probably as fake as mine was!" Cato hissed at her. Finch simply shook her head and smirked, looking down at her tube of Antidote proudly. Cato and Clove were probably stewing! She had figured out and hid the formula from them… and they'd never get it now! If she wasn't standing right in front of them and trying to prove what she had, she probably would've burst into a fit of laughter.

"No. This is the real stuff. I discovered the formula in the same building the Antidote was in…. and I kept a secret." Finch explained to him and the rest of the group. "Only I know the formula, and that's how it shall stay." She nodded, looking at the reactions of the bunch as she spoke. Cato looked absolutely furious, Clove the same. A bulk of them looked puzzled and in disbelief, and the rest of them had absolutely no idea what to think… was Finch telling the truth?

"You selfish bitch, hiding the formula from us like that!" Clove immediately growled at her. Just s quickly, Finnick started to laugh, and looked over at her.

"Wow… this is coming from the girl who suggested we sell the Antidote…" Finnick smirked, folding his arms, Clove giving him a strong glare. Finch cleared her throat as loud as she could, and all attention went back to her. She fiddled with the Antidote tube in her hands, still extremely proud of her work.

"If more than one person knows how to make it, they could easily be forced to reveal it." Finch explained calmly. "If the knowledge is not there, no one can try to take it." Most of the group nodded in semi-agreement, Thresh included, but he couldn't help but be concerned for his girlfriend – she had just painted a giant target on her back.

"Can we stop arguing?" Rosella muttered. "We have to get this stuff out there… before they can all come back to us…" Clove looked over at her, and rolled her eyes.

"Can you just get out of this?" Clove snapped at her. "You aren't even one of us…" At that, Cato laughed loudly, shaking his head.

"And you aren't either!" Cato smirked, her growling at him in annoyance. Thresh sighed and folded his arms, going to speak again, hopefully before another argument could start.

"Look, Finch… if we go along with what you want, only you knowing the formula…" Thresh began with a sigh. "You're going to become a huge target." Finch sighed, knowing of his concern, but she had already planned everything out.

"That's what I want… your protection in return for me making the Antidote." Finch stated, knowing no one could possibly object, no matter what they thought of her.

"That's fine… We can do that easily." Thresh nodded, a few of the group nodding with them. It seeming like the discussion was over, the group began to go off their separate ways. He couldn't help but notice Clove leave, smirk on her lips, obvious planning something… and he was sure he knew exactly what she was thinking of…

xxxx

Clove started to go back to her room in the Leather Shop after the meeting was over, thinking of what to do about Finch. She needed that formula. It was her gateway to getting back on top of the world again.. and she was determined to get it.

It was obvious she was going to get nowhere near Finch's room to search for the formula, but knowing how sly the redhead seemed it was probably somewhere no one could find it. Kidnapping her would work… torturing her into giving her the formula… and then killing her afterwards… It was simply joyous for her to brainstorm different ways to kill her. Which was better? Knife to the heart? Knife to the head? Starve her to death? Torture her to death? Poison her? She couldn't decide. She was about to enter her room when she felt someone, someone much stronger than her, grab her shoulders, and slam her into the wall.

"I want to talk with you…" Thresh said firmly to her, gripping her tightly so she couldn't try anything, before she could even get a word in.

"Talk with me?" Clove muttered. "What do you want?" She asked, knowing it must've been something important in his standards if he was making sure she couldn't get away.

"I know you're planning something." Thresh said to her, gripping her tighter. "And I don't like it at all…" He paused, glaring at her. "Let me tell you… if you mess with Finch, I'll mess with you… do you understand?" He said firmly.

"Aww… someone obvious cares a lot about old Finchy-" Clove began to mock, but was quickly cut off by Thresh's hand locking around her throat, making her eyes widen.

"I'm not kidding. Mess with Finch, and I will make sure that you have quite the unfortunate accident." Thresh threatened, squeezing her throat tightly, then letting her go, her falling to the floor. He walked away quickly as she dusted herself off, frowning. She'd have to be a lot more careful if she wanted to get rid of Finch and get the formula… a lot more than she thought…

xxxx


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thank you to Juliet's Shadow and Lya200 for reviewing... Clove will definitely get what's coming to her, I'll say that... and Rosella could be absolutely anyone... I dropped a few more small hints in this chapter... Please review!**

Chapter Seven

Hours later, the whole group emerged to join together in the café for dinner. Finch had been busy blending the remnants of her plants she had brought back from the woods into an Antidote, and had produced three more tubes, Thresh guarding the archway to her room, not allowing anyone to enter, Clove, despite Thresh's threat, was still plotting out ways to kill Finch in the most grotesque way possible, and Rory was trying to plot out more (and hopefully less dangerous) scams.

"How's it going with the Antidote?" Rosella asked immediately as Finch sat down in the café, in front of a bowl of vegetable soup, courtesy of Madge. Everyone adored when Madge cooked. Peeta was a close second… Finnick was alright, but it was a hit or miss with him, Clove walked away and almost burnt the mall down, only coming back just in time to serve up a burnt mess that made the whole tribe feel sick, Cato's cooking being pretty much the same. On the first night Clove cooked, Finch jokingly muttered to Thresh if she was trying to poison them… having no idea of that maybe being the case for the redhead in the future.

"I've managed to produce another three tubes." Finch began after swallowing a spoonful of soup. She stirred her soup as she spoke her next words, sighing quietly. "But there's a problem…" She muttered. Immediately, not missing a beat, Cato, still extremely annoyed over the Antidote formula being secret thing, spoke.

"What? Forgot the formula already?" Cato smirked, Thresh and Finch glaring at him. It was obvious him and Clove were not going to give up about the Antidote thing… though Cato wasn't plotting to kill Finch… at the moment, but it could easily change. If they teamed up together to try and get rid of Finch… Thresh didn't want to think of what could happen.

"No, idiot." Finch snapped before she could stop herself. "I've run out of plants…" The group raised their eyebrows. "Oh… yes. I guess I'll have to tell you one thing about the Antidote – it is stemmed from 5 major plants and two roots." Rory raised his eyebrows again, not fully understanding.

"Wait… plants?" Rory questioned, as if he had thought the Antidote was made from something entirely different. "Plants… plant plants? Plants as in pl-" He continued, but was cut off by Cato.

"Yes, Rory… plants. Thanks to your string of fine words, I'm sure we all get the message now." Cato muttered, rolling his eyes. Rory, embarrassed, went bright red and quickly looked down at his bowl.

"With me in the lab, I won't be able to go out and gather them all by myself." Finch explained, most of the group nodding. "I'm sure if I gave you my book of plant identification, you could help me out a little…." She trailed off as if she meant to say more, but decided against it at the last minute. She thought that it wasn't risky to ask them to gather her plants… they couldn't figure the formula out with that. A few extra ingredients had to be added, that she'd supply herself, and the plants had to be crushed up and blended in a certain way.

"We can do that." Thresh nodded, prepared to do anything for his girlfriend and to get the Antidote out there. He was pretty good with identifying plants, herbs and roots. He used to go camping a lot with his parents, and sometimes with Glimmer, who had stopped coming after a very nasty encounter with bees, and had learned to identify quite a lot of things over the years, which had helped him after he had escaped the Alma Coin Hotel, and fled to the woods before he had found Rue and met the Mockingjays.

"We'll send out a group tomorrow to gather.. we need as much Antidote as we can… and fast. The mob that got Cato and Rory's fake stuff could be back and absolutely furious any time now." Peeta said quickly, the group giving him nods of agreement. As he looked around the group, he couldn't help but notice a sly smirk on Clove's lips (much like the one Thresh had noticed after Finch revealed the Antidote to the tribe), meaning she was up to no good… as almost always. He sighed. With Clove around, they most definitely wouldn't even get a single second of peace….

xxxx

At around eleven at night, most of the group were asleep, except for Cato, who was on guard duty, and Peeta and Rosella, who were walking through the top floor of the mall and chatting about the events of the day. Peeta had been trying to get to know her better, but he couldn't help but notice an air of mystery around her, as if she didn't want to tell her anything about her previous life. To be considerate, he didn't push it, but it didn't keep assumptions from running through his mind. Was that mansion, with all of the dead roses in the garden and the elegant furniture hers before the Virus? Her family must've had quite a status to afford all of that stuff… and she was pretty devoted to defending the place, as if she wasn't just trying to save her skin if he was dangerous… as if there was something in that mansion Rosella wanted to hide…

"So, what do think of that Finch and the power she's built up for herself?" Rosella asked, snapping Peeta out of his thoughts about what the mysterious girl could be hiding. "She doesn't seem like the one that would usually have all that power… the quiet ones aren't normally the best leaders." She shrugged. "Well, that's what my grandfather always insisted."

"Finch'll be fine… she's extremely smart. She can handle it." Peeta returned the shrug as he walked, his room of the Pharmacy entering his path of vision. As he reached the front, he leaned against the balcony railing, Rosella staying standing, completely straight, as if someone would randomly pop out of nowhere and snap at her for slouching. "I think our biggest burden will be keeping Finch safe… Thresh, the boy she was sitting next to at dinner, was right… she painted quite a target on her back."

"If the city kids get their Antidote… they won't have any reason to go after her. We're giving it out free, and curing them…" Rosella muttered, as another point came into her mind, Peeta looking over at her as if he had read her mind. "Well… there is a few shady people in this place." Peeta immediately knew who she was referring to: Cato and Clove. "That short girl with the brown eyes and the knives gives we the creeps…"

"You're not alone on that one." Peeta gave a small laugh. "I know her much, much too well…" He let out a loud yawn, looking around the mall as Rosella began to walk away.

"I should let you go to bed." Rosella nodded, yawning herself. She made her way down the stairs to her room of the Jewellery Shop, Peeta heading inside his room.

"Goodnight, Rosella." Peeta called as he took off his jacket. She didn't answer, already out of hearing range. He sighed, and quickly climbed into bed, unable to get off to sleep, no matter what he did. As soon as he closed his eyes, Katniss filled his mind, followed by Clove, followed by the Antidote… followed by many other things that just wouldn't let him rest…

xxxx

Clove awoke the next morning before anyone else had even stirred. Dressing quickly, she grabbed her bad and her knives, stuffing them in her belt (just in case, and she took great joy in frightening the city kids she passed with them) and disappeared out the front entrance of the mall, knowing that if she went down the sewer entrance she would be bombarded with questions by Cato, and wouldn't get anywhere.

Disappearing out of the mall and into the carpark, she made her way onto the cool city streets, which seemed incredibly bare without the sirens of her police car blaring, city kids screaming at the sight of her. She sighed. She had enjoyed seeing the fear in their eyes, hearing them scream in terror, making them beg for mercy… now, those days were over, and she would never get them back. All that were on the street other than her were a few ill stragglers, who didn't approach or bother her at all. To her great pleasure, most of them looked at her like a deer in the headlights, and bolted, making her trip to where she was heading absolutely effortless.

Clove was heading to the seedy area of Panem, an area that was normally a death wish to go into if her weren't a local, but she was quite respected there. She looked around at the area, just about as bare as the area by the mall in the terms of the people around, but she knew who she was seeking out would be awake. Spying a blue, worn down shack, looking as if it was about to crumble to pieces at any minute, she smirked, and made her way towards it, opening the door quickly. As soon as the creaking registered in the person who was behind the counter's ears, she got up and grabbed her gun, aiming it at Clove.

"Relax Savannah, relax… it's just me." Clove said calmly, seemingly not bothered at all that she had just had a gun pointed at her. The girl gave a sigh of relief, and put her gun down. Stepping over the the counter, Clove looked around at all of the items in her little place – most weird but wonderful, and in the old world… very illegal. If you wanted something, Savannah had it… for a 'small fee' of course.

"Oh… Clove." Savannah smirked. "It's lovely to see you again." She climbed over the counter and sat on it, kicking her feet against the wood absentmindedly. "What do you need?" Clove folded her arms and returned the smirk.

"Well…. do you have anything special?" Clove asked, stepping a little closer to her. When she noticed Savannah's puzzled expression, trying to figure out what exactly she wanted. "Oh… silly me. I better be more specific." She leaned down and whispered a single word in the other girl's ear. "Poison." Savannah got up off her counter, and grinned.

"Poison, huh? Someone bothering ya?" Savannah said as she began to shift through shelves full of all different bottles and jars, trying to find something fitting for her 'old friend.' Clove nodded, though the girl couldn't see it, waiting for her to pick something out. After a few more minutes, Savannah turned back and pressed a small bottle in Clove's hand, which was filled with a crushed up purple powder. "Nightlock." She smirked. "One of my personal favourites. Once your intended victim gets a taste of this… they won't have much time left on this Earth, let me tell you that." The two girls shared a smirk.

"You don't disappoint, do you, Savannah?" Clove stuffed the jar in her bag, and took out five bottles of alcohol she had stolen from Cato's room before bed to trade with the girl if she gave her what she needed. Savannah took the bottles gratefully, taking the top off one and having a long drink as Clove went to the door.

"I hope your little victim enjoys the Nightlock…" Savannah grinned as Clove opened the door. Clove turned back and gave her a deranged smile.

"Oh, I'm sure she will…" Clove laughed and shut the door, her mind on the poison she had just purchased. Even if it took a lot of time… Finch would be dead. She'd make sure of it…

xxxx

Johanna still sat by Annie's bedside, dipping a rag into some cool water and pressing it to her forehead again. Even after four doses of the Antidote, Annie didn't seem to be getting any better. She had started ranting, made delirious by her awful fever, crying out for her parents, and strangely enough her long-dead pet hamster. Keeping the cloth on Annie's forehead, Johanna took the vial of Antidote by Annie's bedside and frowned. Swearing loudly, she threw the bottle at the wall, watching it smash into a million pieces, the yellow liquid dripping down the walls.

"Those idiots are going to pay…" Johanna said through gritted teeth, getting up from Annie's bedside and leaving the room, asking the passing Marina to take over looking after the sick girl. After Marina nodded, Johanna went into her room, put on some new dark war paint, grabbed her coat and her axe, and set out without saying a single word to anyone else.

She was desperate for revenge… and was going to make sure Cato would pay for deceiving her…

xxxx


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

The next morning after breakfast, Rosella, Peeta, Rue, Prim, Rory, and Thresh went out to gather plants for Finch to begin to work on her first real batch of the Antidote. Staying back at the mall were Finnick to guard (desperately hoping the mob would hold off, especially now that most of the Mockingjays were gone), Madge who was staying with her son, Cato, who had refused to go, Clove, who no one could find since she was still coming back from buying the poison for Finch, and Finch, who was finishing setting her lab so she'd be ready to start making the Antidote when the group returned.

About half an hour after the gathering group went off, Clove returned to the mall, still extremely happy about her purchase. Good things came to those who waited… and soon Finch would be dead. The thought made her feel like she was about to burst with excitement. She'd have the formula. Finch would be dead. She could get rich again… she could be on top of the world! As she went to make her way to the Leather Shop to unpack and hide her poison, she felt someone grab her.

"Has anyone told you that stealing isn't very nice?" Cato snapped at her, though his voice had a mocking undertone. Looking up at him, she rolled her eyes. "No bother lying. I know it was you… and I hate it when people steal from me." He said through gritted teeth. Though it was a struggle, she managed to stuff a hand in her bag, searching around quickly for the bottle holding the jar of Nightlock. He could be trusted, on this subject. They both had a common goal – to get to formula… no matter what happened to Finch.

"Look, moron, since I'm now stuck with this lowly mob and basically have to eat freaking dirt, I don't exactly have much of my own… which is a first." Clove muttered, trying to get out of his grip, which quickly failed. "I had to trade your stuff for something important… it's to do with getting the formula. If you let go of me, I can show you." She sighed. Reluctant, Cato slowly let go of her.

"There, I've let go of you. What is it?" Cato asked her. "And you better not be wasting my time!" Rolling her eyes, Clove held up the bottle, holding it so tightly just in case he tried to snatch it off her that she wouldn't be surprised if it broke. He snickered when she held up the bottle, folding his arms. "Great. Just great, you selfish idiot." He muttered, Clove simply shaking her head. He didn't recognise the stuff at all. "You traded my alcohol … that took quite awhile to trade for in the first place, and got some stupid powder!"

"Listen to me… and listen carefully." Clove said to him through gritted teeth, voice turning to a whisper, just in case anyone ended up in close range, though she doubted it. "This is Nightlock, a special little treat for someone in this tribe… our ticket to getting the formula… and Finch out of the way." She explained, still whispering, her eyes going down to the bottle.

"Our ticket?" Cato raised an eyebrow. "Since when have I been working with you?" He hissed, grabbing her shoulders again. "I meant what I said back when we found the Antidote." He spat at her. "I'm not working with you. Ever." He let go of her again, shoving her back into the mall, Clove almost dropping her bottle of Nightlock. "Now, if you excuse me, I have to go get my alcohol back." He muttered, walking off out of the mall. It helped get his mind off Glimmer and the child he'd lost… even if it was just for a little while. Clove scowled at him, fiddling with her bottle.

"Well… it looks like I'm going to put this to even better use than I thought…" Clove said quietly as she walked into her room. This would take awhile, but she would find out the formula… no matter what it took. She wasn't going to settle for being at the bottom forever. It wasn't where she belonged. Not at all.

xxxx

A few hours later, around noon, the plant gathering group came back and had all gathered in the café to inspect what they had brought back, with the exception of Cato, who was still out trying to get back the alcohol Clove had stolen from him and traded for the Nightlock, and Prim, Rue, and Rory, who were playing a game of knocking down cans with a ball to pass the time. The Mockingjays continued to shift through the plants relatively quietly, until about ten minutes later, when their ears were filled with screaming from Prim and Rue, who were grabbed by the neck by the intruders, and Rory, who was promptly shut up by one of the intruders whacking him across the head with a baseball bat.

As soon as he heard the screams, Peeta raced down the stairs, followed by Finnick, Thresh, and Rosella. Peeta immediately recognised the intruder, ex-Tracker-Jackers that had survived Clove's knives after they had rebelled against her… the 'lucky' ones that would be soon running out of luck. Peeta charged towards the ex-Tracker-Jackers, Thresh following, as the warrior that had Rue unwrapped one hand from her throat and held it up in front of the two boys, giving them a look of death neither of the two could even begin to describe.

"Stop right there!" The warrior who held up their hand screamed at Peeta, who was getting ready to punch the living daylights out of him, along with Thresh. "If you take even a step closer, I'll break the little girl's neck!" He threatened, looking over at the boy who had Prim for a second. "And he'll break hers!" He hissed.

"What the hell do you want anyway?!" Finnick asked them, fists clenched, having absolutely no idea of the events at the hotel (only fully known by Peeta and Clove) before the trip to Feather Mountain had truly begun. The warriors glared at him, grip tightening on Rue and Prim's throats, the two extremely pale. It was obvious that if nothing happened soon that they'd be goners.

"We want the Antidote!" The warrior, who unknown to the boys, had knocked Rory out, shouted. "Give it to us! We know you have it!" She growled, fiddling with her baseball bat. No one responded for a few minutes. "GIVE IT TO US, OR THESE GIRLS AND ALL OF YOU ARE HISTORY!"

"We have the Antidote… but it's not for you idiots." Cato said to the group that had burst in, making them all even angrier. Rolling her eyes, Clove shoved him out of her way and slowly came down the stairs. Quickly, all of the attention of the ex-Tracker-Jackers' went to her, them all giving her the same look of death they had given the boys and Rosella.

"Oh… friends.." Clove began as she continued to come down the stairs, a deranged smile on her lips. "I never thought I'd see most of you again… I thought you'd all be in hell by now." She smirked, shaking her head as she started to speak again. "Where do I begin? As usual, you hit the gas pedal without even get your brain working properly… if you all even have them!" She muttered, the Mockingjays looking around and raising eyebrows at eachother. What on Earth was she trying to do? "Have you learnt NOTHING from me?! You are all losers, the lot of you! Is this how you think you'll get what you want? Do you want the Antidote? Do you want the Antidote?"

"Yes!" They all screamed at her as she finally joined them, walking past Thresh, Finnick, and Peeta and coming right up to them, seemingly not caring at Prim and Rue just about to be strangled to death. "Give it to us!" Clove folded her arms, smirking, obviously having thought up a plan… now all it took was the ex-Tracker-Jackers to agree to it.

"Alright, then… if you want the Antidote, you have to give me something in return. No more of this 'against me' nonsense." Clove snapped at them, carefully watching their reactions. As one opened their mouth to most likely protest, she spoke again. "In exchange for the Antidote, I want your muscle."

"Why the hell would we ever work for you again, Clove?" The boy who had his arm around Prim's throat snapped back at her, the other ex-Tracker-Jackers that had burst in nodding in agreement.

"You want the bloody Antidote? Work for me again, no stupid rebel stuff, and you'll get the Antidote." Clove told them sharply, it very clear by her tone there would be no way else to get the stuff, no matter what they tried. "It's not like I can hide anything from you.. we all eat and live like dirt here… even ones that are more _special _than others…"

"Thanks, Clove. It's just lovely to share a mall with you too." Madge said sarcastically, watching from to opposite side of the balcony from Cato, Marshall in her arms, who had somehow managed to remain asleep through all of the noise. Clove paid no attention to her comment, keeping her eyes trained fully on the intruders. Everyone wanted to scream in protest, but no one was truly game, and they didn't want to get Rue and Prim killed.

"Fine." The boy in front snapped, scowling at her, starting to loosen his grip on Rue's throat. "But you better not be playing with us." Clove simply glared back at him. The Mockingjays looked around at eachother, obviously not pleased with the agreement.

Peeta, after awhile, told Clove that the decision of getting the ex-Tracker-Jackers to work for them had to be a tribe decision, and though extremely annoyed, Clove had taken her and her warriors up to the café, where they were going to have a vote (with the exception of Rory, who was still out cold and had been taken back to his room in the Grocer.) Sitting at his usual seat in the café, Peeta looked over at one of the warriors, one he recognised from the hotel attack. He swore Clove had killed him… but it mustn't have been a deadly shot. How unfortunate.

"Why should we let these idiots into our tribe? Isn't one Tracker-Jacker in this dump more than enough?" Cato immediately snapped before anyone else could get a word in.

"They aren't going to become members of this tribe… they're just going to work for us." Peeta said firmly, Clove nodding as she leaned against one of the walls of the café, opening her mouth to speak.

"When Finch starts mass-producing that Antidote and we distribute it, this mall is going to be a pretty crowded place." Clove began to explain. "And since we have the new world equivalent of the Crown Jewels in our hands... well, people could definitely want in… and we don't want anyone getting hurt, do we?" She continued, a hint of mockery in her voice making everyone uncomfortable, as if she wasn't meaning what she said truly.

"Just a question – who's orders will they work under?" Finnick asked her, not pleased with what could be happening at all. None of this seemed right. Clove in the mall made everyone uncomfortable… now add a bunch more? Brilliant. Just brilliant.

"Under my orders, of course." Clove muttered, everyone exchanging glances. She'd probably be the only one they would take seriously… but it could end up being a very dangerous arrangement if she turned on the Mockingjays.

"You have some good points…" Peeta said, uneasiness being very easy to spot in his voice, as if he also didn't mean what he was saying truly either. "But it has to be a vote." He nodded. "Everyone against this decision, raise your hands." Immediately Cato, Thresh, and Finnick's hand went up. The rest were either too afraid of the consequences that could be unleashed on them for voting with the three, or semi-liked the agreement. "Then it's settled… the warriors will be our new security…"

xxxx

It was around one o clock in the morning, and everyone in the mall was asleep, except for Finch, who was working hard into the night blending her plants. One of the new warriors was meant to be guarding, but hadn't shown up for some reason, leaving it very easy for the intruder to walk through the mall, quiet as a mouse. She looked into every room she passed. Nothing. She climbed the stairs, looking into every room. Nothing still… until she entered the Tool Shop.

"Exactly what I was looking for…" She said under her breath, and without stopping for a second, walked into the room, came right up to his bed, and locked an arm tightly around his throat. He was going to pay for what he did to her…

xxxx


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

As soon as he felt the arm around his throat, Cato awoke with a start. As soon as his blue eyes opened, they met the brown ones of the person who was attempting to strangle him - a woman, looking the same age as him, dark hair pulled into an extremely messy ponytail, a look that would kill on her face. He recognised her from the day he and Rory had distributed the Antidote, her at the front, threatening to tear the grille down. Johanna, he thought he heard Finnick call her, when he briefly thought of it. As quickly as he could, Johanna's grip tightening around his throat, breath rapidly becoming a struggle, he searched for the knife he kept under his pillow and grabbed it, aiming for her throat.

"I don't think so, idiot." Johanna spat at him, eyes dark. Before Cato could even start to move the knife to where he wanted, he felt it being ripped out of his hand with her free one, it being chucked into the wall by the archway, embedding itself in the blue-painted wall without seemingly any effort. Cato now had no weapons, and any attempt to fight back with his fists only ended with failure… and Johanna's grip tightening on his throat even more. Soon, if nothing happened to change, he'd a goner.

"What… do… you… want?" Cato said to her between deep breaths. As soon as the words left his lips, his mind answered his question for him. The Antidote. The Mockingjays had all known that when the Antidote Cato and Rory had made would be revealed to be fake, Johanna would most certainly be returning to avenge who she had wanted the precious liquid for.

"What do you think? A game of cards? To do a barn dance?" Johanna answered mockingly, dragging him by the throat off the bed, Cato trying to fight back again, wondering if he'd somehow be able to retrieve his knife. She slammed him into the wall opposite the knife, a scowl on her lips, Cato realising once again that he wouldn't be able to get out of this one, no matter what he tried. "You know my friend, the one I needed the Antidote for? Yeah, well… she isn't getting any better. Your stuff is FAKE!" She snapped at him. "And I want payback." With her free hand, she grabbed something out of her bag, not struggling for a second. A bloodstained axe. _Is this how it's going to end? _Cato though to himself, eyes not leaving her axe. _Escaping the Tracker-Jackers, starvation, the Virus, Feather Mountain… and being finished off by a crazy chick's axe? _He thought to himself once more. He finally looked at her face again.

"Look, I can get you the real stuff!" Cato said to her as loudly and strongly as he could with the limited oxygen he still had left. Johanna gave him a strange smirk, as if to say _I don't believe that for a second, you really think I'm going to be this gullible again? _and he sighed, clenching his fists, trying to keep his words as he continued strong. "It's real, I swear!" He said, scolding himself in his head. He didn't want to appear desperate, that definitely wasn't him… but he didn't fancy dying after everything that had been thrown his way so far. "I SWEAR ON MY GIRLFRIEND'S GRAVE!" He continued after slowly gaining the strength to shout the words at her.

"You better be telling me the bloody truth this time, or you'll be joining her." Johanna threatened, Cato nodding though he knew that hopefully wouldn't be happening, if luck was on his side (which didn't happen to him very frequently.) Slowly, she loosened her grip on his throat, him sighing in relief. "Come on, show me where this stuff is." She muttered, fiddling with her axe in her other hand, it a clear statement that he'd be finished if he tried anything before securing her the stuff. Cato began to walk out of the room, her walking beside him, going down the stairs to Finch's workshop, which was now more of a lab. He could see lights from one of her desk lamps on through the poorly constructed door she and Thresh had made to give her some privacy to work (and to keep out the Catos and the Cloves and the Rorys of the mall,) meaning she was still up, working hard into the night.

"FINCH!" Cato shouted, banging loudly on the door. "OPEN UP! IT… IT'S AN EMERGENCY!" He continued to shout. He waited a few minutes, Johanna tapping her foot impatiently. No answers came from the fox faced girl. "FINCH, OPEN THE BLOODY DOOR OR I SWEAR-" He began to threaten, but was cut off by Johanna, who simply rolled her eyes at his threat, beginning to speak.

"Move out of the way." Johanna ordered, and Cato stepped back, waiting to see what she would do. Quickly, her axe made contact with the badly made door, and after three swings of the axe, the door was completely down. The two stepped in, looking at Finch with a shared smirk. She looked like a deer in the headlights.

"Ah… Finch, right?" Johanna began, sounding as if she was just sitting down to enjoy a cup of tea with the other girl, while having a casual chat. "This thing," she began, pointing to Cato, who now leaned against the wall of the workshop by where the door had once stood, rolling his eyes at her. "Tells me that you have the real stuff. The actual Antidote." She folded her arms. Finch, immediately sensing that Johanna meant business, especially since she had somehow managed to grab Cato without even getting a scratch on her, nodded. "Good… I just hope you're telling the truth. I hate liars, you, know? They make me very angry… _angry enough to want to rip their throat out…" _She said through gritted teeth.

"Here… here's four doses worth…" Finch mumbled, being as quick as she could, hoping Johanna would leave as soon as she got them, grabbing four tubes of Antidote off her desk. It was now the estimated dosage she had figured out as Madge updated her on Cato. After his fourth dose, he was pretty much on the road to becoming his normal self. Johanna gave her a strange smile, snatched the tubes, and carefully placed them in her back. She looked around, as if she was about to finally leave, but suddenly grabbed Finch by the throat tightly, dragging her along.

"She's coming back with me." Johanna stated, Cato having no idea what to do – they couldn't have Finch, the only person that could make the Antidote (something he was still very bitter about) be taken away from them, especially since an angrier mob than last time could be appearing on their doorstep at any given moment, demanding an explanation on why they weren't getting any better, but he didn't fancy getting an axe to the chest… and it wasn't like he particularly was a fan of Finch. She was smart… but she had convinced the group that Feather Mountain would be worth the trip… which Glimmer died during, along with their child … and she hid the Antidote formula from them all, two things that made him dislike her in particular. "Try and knight in shining armour bull, and she's a goner." She warned as she dragged Finch out of the lab and out of the mall by the throat.

"Knight in shining armour?" Cato scoffed. "She can't be serious." He said to himself quietly once Finch and Johanna were gone, going to head back up to his room. As he ascended up the stairs, a bunch of thoughts hit him full force. **_Finch, the only person in this place that knows how to make the Antidote. Finch, who we need to give the angry mob what they want. Finch. GONE. _**"No…" He muttered to himself. "Great. Just freaking brilliant."

xxxx

"EVERYONE, WAKE UP!" Cato shouted as he reached the balcony, voice echoing through the mall. "IT'S URGENT!" He declared, beginning to hear groaning, curses, and Marshall's screaming. All four of those sounds combined – the groaning, curses, Cato's shouting and Marshall's crying, got everyone up immediately. Coming out of her room, Madge frowned at him, rubbing her eyes with her free hand, her other one holding her bawling son.

"Thanks, Cato." Madge sighed. "I just got him to get to sleep." She rocked him gently as others began to emerge from their rooms, most all annoyed to be awoken from their relatively peaceful slumbers. After it seemed like everyone had gathered, Madge spoke again, asking the question that was on everyone's minds. "What's going on?" She asked, sounding extremely tired. Cato began to speak, awaiting all of the shouting, protests, and cut-offs to come from his words.

"You know that Johanna… um, the girl with the axe that threatened to rip the grille down when we had that mob?" Cato began, leaning against the balcony, looking down at the others, who gradually gave him nods as an answer, him pleasantly surprised no one had tried to cut him off or talk over him again, like he'd expected. "Well, she came back, wanted the Antidote, which we gave her…" He sighed, tapping his fingers on the balcony quietly, knowing his next words would definitely cause outrage. "And took Finch along with it."

"WHAT?!" Thresh shouted, clenching his fists, immediately blaming Cato for his girlfriend's abduction, having known of what he'd done in the past. In the very beginning, when the Mockingjays hadn't even been formed yet, he'd left him to the Tracker-Jackers so he could save his and Glimmer's skins! In fact, he wouldn't put it past him to take Finch himself!

"Finch is the only one who can make the Antidote!" Prim said next, the thought becoming embedded into everyone's minds once again. Cato scowled at her, crossing his arms.

"Well, thank you, Prim, for that amazing new information! I NEVER thought of that before!" Cato said sarcastically. Before everyone could start talking over eachother again, Madge sighed, and brought up a new point, a point she wondered why no one else had picked up yet. The blonde girl's gaze went to Clove, who was leaning against the Mockingjay fountain, arms crossed, looking not concerned, but completely bored.

"How did this happen, exactly?" Madge frowned, looking down at Marshall, who had stopped crying and instead was looking up at her with tired green eyes, though it was obvious with the group in such a state he wouldn't get much sleep for long without getting another rude awakening because of a screaming match beginning. "I thought we had Clove's warriors now…" She said in a tone that was almost mocking, granting a death glare from the girl she had mentioned. "I though they were going to _protect _us from things like this.." The mockery stayed in her voice the whole time she spoke.

"Yeah… you're right, Madge." Finnick nodded, stepping forward. "Wasn't one of them meant to be on guard duty?" He continued, looking over at the sewers. "Hang on, I'll go check-" He was cut off by none other than the warrior that was meant to be on guard duty, coming down the stairs, yawning.

"Oh, hey." He nodded between yawns. "What did I miss?" Immediately, everyone gave him a long death glare. "What did I do?!" He immediately asked defensively.

"Jason, you were meant to be on guard duty… you idiot." Clove growled at him. "I suggest you get yourself down to the sewers in the next three seconds before I get sick of you… _and you know what happens when I get sick of people, right?" _She hissed. Jason immediately scurried off to the sewers, practically a blur going past them.

"We'll figure out what to do in the morning." Peeta said with a sigh, eyes on the floor, deeply regretting voting yes for the agreement of Clove's warriors to help 'defend' the mall. They were useless if they were letting this sort of stuff occur! "This is all Cato and Rory's fault…" He muttered under his breath, grouchiness caused by extreme tiredness, all the thoughts swirling around his mind, and the events of the night itself.

"This wouldn't have happened if the selfish bitch Finch didn't keep the formula to herself!" Cato persisted, all the glares that had gone to Jason just minutes earlier now going in his direction. "It's true!" He continued to go on, tapping his fingers on the railing of the balcony again. Madge sighed and shook her head, knowing he would never be over the fact that Finch was the only one that knew to formula… or at least not for a long time. Before a screaming match could start, most likely between Thresh, Cato and Peeta, she spoke.

"Come on…" Madge sighed again, looking around at the group. "We're tired, we can't think straight, and in this state, we'll all just end up fighting and not working out a thing." A few of the group nodded in agreement. "We should all go back to bed for the night, and figure out what to do in the morning."

"While I hate to agree with you… you're right." Cato muttered with a yawn, everyone beginning to head back to their rooms for the night, though many couldn't get back to sleep at all, too busy thinking about what could become of them now that Finch was gone… and was it for good? No one knew.

xxxx

"Well, here we are." Johanna muttered to Finch as they approached her farm, the redhead's eyes immediately catching the warning sign of the skull and crossbones mixed with the female, painted with red paint that looked exactly like it was actually blood that was on the front gate. As they passed the ominous sign, Finch kept her eyes on the dirt below her feet, wondering if she'd even come out of this whole thing alive. Johanna's friend would get the Antidote and get better, just what she wanted…. but what if for some reason she didn't sent her back and instead killed her? She remembered Johanna's threat to Cato about what would happen if he came and rescued her (not that it would be high on his to do list anyway) so a rescue party was definitely out of the question, and Thresh definitely wouldn't want her harmed if they tried to organize something.

Finch followed as Johanna lead her through the farm and up to the inn where Annie was lying in bed, getting sicker and sicker by the minute, having no choice with the way she had her wrists gripped so tightly she was now just waiting for the sound of a shatter from them breaking. She was more than relieved when she let go when they entered Annie's room, Finch studying the sick girl as Johanna took out a tube of Antidote. She didn't look even half as bad as Cato did after he escaped the hotel and found in the sewers, just about dead, but the signs were definitely still there. Wrinkles, grey hair, judging by the cloth of her forehead fever, and judging by a bowl by the bed splattered with red, coughing up blood.

"She is still in reasonably early stages, so she may only need two doses." Finch declared, accidentally thinking out loud. Johanna looked over at her as she replaced Marina by Annie's bed, raising an eyebrow, obviously by Annie's appearance not believing a word of what she was saying.

"How would you know?" Johanna muttered as she unscrewed the cap off the tube of Antidote, pouring some into a glass and then trying to get Annie in a sitting position so she could drink it successfully. "It doesn't look like early stages to me." Finch continued to stand by the door awkwardly, hoping that speaking again wouldn't annoy her.

"I did my research." Finch said, fighting hard to keep the pride out of her voice. Even if she lived a million years, the Virus investigation and how far they had come would be her proudest achievement. Who was it, that braved crawling through a minefield and almost died in a death trap building to get some more files for the Antidote case, discovering some test vials in the process? Finch (and company, but she didn't seem to acknowledge them.) Who took a long journey up a mountain to get answers for the Antidote, losing two tribe members in the process? Finch (and company once more, but again, she didn't seem to acknowledge them.) Johanna's answer was just a few mutters, as if she didn't believe a word of it.

"Johanna… what are you doing?" Annie murmured, stirring as Johanna propped her up with the pillows. Gently pressing the glass full of Antidote to her lips, Annie slowly drank it, almost too weak to attempt it. After about five minutes, she was able to drink the whole glass.

"Give you your Antidote… the real one." Johanna answered, taking the glass from the ill girl and helping her lay down again. "This one will definitely make you better." Finch couldn't help but notice all her doubt on the Antidote wasn't given to Annie at all… was it to take pity on the sick girl, give her hope, even though secretly, to all Johanna knew about the stuff, wouldn't make it?

"It will work. She'll be fine in a few days." Finch said to Johanna without thinking first. She cursed herself in her head, realising how stupid that was. Johanna looked up at the amber eyed girl, and glared. "I know this well." She explained, hoping it wouldn't grant another glare. "A member of our tribe got it, he almost died…. but with the Antidote, he recovered." She said quickly.

"Why would they trust someone like you with all this knowledge?" Johanna muttered, folding her arms. "You're a freak!" Finch just looked at her, forcing back a sly grin that wanted to form on her lips.

"I found all this information, specifically the formula of the Antidote." Finch said back. "And that's way the formula knowledge is going to stay. There's a few… snakes in my tribe, that would do anything for the information…" She mumbled. Johanna muttered something out of her breath, and then got up.

"I guess I better show you to where you'll be sleeping while we have you." Johanna said with a sigh, as if she was extremely reluctant about saying the words. She grabbed her by the wrists again and left the room, motioning for a passing Marina to take over looking after Annie while she was gone. Finch nodded, also reluctant, just wanting to get home.

xxxx


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

The next morning at breakfast, all talk was on what Peeta had dubbed as Operation: Rescue Finch. Thresh and the blonde leader both wanted to get her out as quickly as possible before their mall was flooded with furious sick kids, but they didn't want to accidentally get her killed during the process… then, they'd be in an even worse situation. While she was pretending to go with what everyone else was saying, Clove was cooking up a plan for the fox-faced girl's rescue of her own. Her warriors and her would be going on that rescue party, she'd make sure of it… but Finch wouldn't exactly come home. She'd be rescued… from the farm, at least, but after a few 'accidental wrong-turns' they'd end up at an old, long-abandoned even before the Virus struck warehouse, where she would hold Finch until she could crack her and get the formula, and then do the part she was looking forward to the most – killing her with that poison. Her plan seemed foolproof… but there was one huge problem: Thresh.

There was no way Thresh would stay back and wait for his girlfriend to return, he'd be adamant on coming with them… and would easily put a stop to her beautiful, wonderful plan. Though she hated to say it, much preferring to think she was invincible, she couldn't take on Thresh without dying an early death. She needed back-up. Her warriors wouldn't be sufficient enough. They may of had the muscle, but they were too stupid for someone like Thresh. She needed someone like Cato to help her… but so far, he was being way too stubborn. She had expected at least a little gratitude for coming up with the Nightlock scheme. Sure, they hated eachother, but when someone gives you a chance to get revenge on a smart redhead that makes your head ache by getting secret information that could make you rich, then killing her after you get it, you don't let it slip away from you. Well, at least in her opinion.

"Does anyone have any ideas… preferably ones that won't get Finch killed in the process?" Thresh muttered after the silence at the table became slightly unsettling. Nothing was the same without Finch for him, and the thought of her dying and him not being able to do a thing made him feel awful. He hadn't done anything else on the Virus investigation without her, and had instead turned his attention back to the long-dead water filtration machine that he had wanted to fix up for ages but never got the time. Working on the Virus stuff without her didn't feel right.

"Yeah. We storm the farm and get her out." Cato said casually with a laugh, as it was just extremely easy for his plan to work, producing a bottle from his bag, taking the top off, and having a long drink from it, obviously not taking the Finch situation seriously. Thresh just glared at him, slowly looking around at the rest of the group as if they had anymore ideas, which he doubted.

"Cato… don't you think it's a little early in the morning to start drinking?" Madge sighed, tapping her fingers on the black café table, keeping her eyes on it as Cato glared at her. Everyone had noticed Cato hadn't exactly been the same since Glimmer died, which was expected, but no one thought it would've made as much as an impact on him as it apparently did. He looked terrible, like he hadn't slept in meals, and only really came out of his room (which had been dubbed The Cave by Rue, Prim and Rory, their secret joke together) to get his meals, shower, go out and trade of scam some kids out of their alcohol, or guard duty… but sometimes he didn't even come out for that.

"Don't you think it's time for you to shut your mouth?" Cato growled at her, making both Madge and Peeta glare at him. The group sighed, knowing that the tribe would never actually truly fully tolerate one another. It had been like that since day one, the long ago day where Katniss, Prim and Rue found Finch's mall and saved the three from Cato and Glimmer, locking them in the grille.

"How about we focus on what really matters now… Finch." Rosella spoke quickly, just to avoid an early morning argument, something no one wanted, especially with how annoyed, defeated and frustrated they all felt. Some of the group exchanged nods, while others just stayed quiet, like they had through the whole meeting.

"We should wait until Johanna lowers her guard a little, then strike." Clove suggested, though she desperately wanted to get going as soon as possible so she could get the Antidote formula as soon as she could and be able to leave the Mockingjays, run off with the knowledge, and get very, very rich, she knew the group probably wouldn't pick up on anything strange with the comment. She couldn't let Johanna kill her, either… that kill was all hers. Thresh just folded his arms. While it was surprisingly sensible, and strange, coming from someone like Clove he thought wouldn't care less, he wanted to do something as soon as possible… it just felt like leaving Finch there!

"Well, we have to do something, and soon!" Thresh burst out before he meant it, the whole group looking at him. He sighed, and spoke again. "We have kids out there who need the Antidote, and ones that are going to become very angry soon." He said quickly. Cato looked at him and smirked.

"Aww, I see what it is." Cato laughed, though he kept his eyes on his bottle. "Want to make sure your girlfriend Finchy gets tucked into bed properly at night, don't you?" Thresh glared, while the rest of the group looked around at eachother, unsure of what to think.

"SHUT. UP." Thresh growled at him, clenching his fists. Peeta sighed and rubbed his head, knowing that he would never get peace around the mall, even if he tried for a hundred years. This 'rescue Finch' operation could sadly take a long, long time at this rate…

xxxx

Finch sat on the floor of the room Johanna had locked her in, amber eyes on the ceiling. The room was tiny, and had been a linen closet in the inn before the Virus had struck. Now apparently, it was used for housing prisoners, judging by the black tally marks Finch had spotted on the walls a few hours ago. Did they end up dying in this room, did Johanna put them out of their misery before they did, or did she let them go once she got what she wanted? If she died, she knew the Mockingjays would be completely doomed. Her thoughts of the downfall of her tribe that could occur were silenced by the creak of the door. Was she being let go of so quickly? She doubted it.

"Here's your breakfast." The person muttered, a girl with hair dyed aqua, elaborate blue swirls on her face serving as her tribal markings. Finch though she heard Johanna call the girl Marina, and by her very bright appearance, she didn't seem to be one you would forget in a hurry. Marina put a tray of food by the redhead's feet, which she quickly observed was bacon and eggs… something she hadn't had in months. Immediately, her mouth watered, but in the back of her mind, she couldn't help but wonder if it was just a trick.

"Um… Thanks…" Finch mumbled, taking the fork she had given her and fiddling around with the bacon on the plate awkwardly. She wanted to eat it, but what if it poisoned her? As the girl turned to leave, a question sprung to her mind. Hopefully, she couldn't see that she was just pretending to care. "Um… how's Annie?" Marina turned back, leaning against the wall by the door.

"She hasn't coughed up much blood recently, and she had some tea early, and managed to drink it all." Marina nodded quickly, putting one hand on the doorknob. "I think she's on the way to getting her appetite back, as well." She mumbled as Finch took a wary bite of bacon, the taste bringing her back to better times. As Marina opened the door a tiny bit, she turned back again, but looked very reluctant. "Uh… thanks for getting Annie the real stuff. I don't know what I would've done if she died…"

With that, she shut the door and locked it, leaving Finch alone in the room once again.

xxxx

The next day, the Mockingjays, after a lot of fights, had managed to gather up a rescue party for Finch at the farm, which consisted of Clove, Cato (who she had managed to get on the kidnap Finch side with a lot of bribery involved), Clove's warriors, and of course, Thresh. Cato and Clove had come up with a quick plan, hoping it would work – lead them off the path with a supposed short-cut to the city, then when Thresh seems to realise that something's wrong, Cato takes care of him while Clove gets Finch to the warehouse. It sounded easy... but there were always frustrating slip-ups in plans sometimes… and Cato and Clove didn't exactly like or trust eachother much.

The group travelled quickly and quietly, not even wasting breath on bickering, not wanting to be discovered by Johanna or any of her farmers before the signal was given. The rescue party slowly slid around the fence of the farm, hoping not to be discovered, looking for some way in that wouldn't involve using much muscle. Towards the middle of the fence, providing a clear view of the inn, was a hole large enough for them to slide under. Now, they just had to wait.

"Now what do we do?" One of Clove's warriors whispered to the others, looking around at the farm. Not many people were around, but by the sounds coming from the inn, the place was definitely full of life. As he was about to reply to the warrior, Cato was pushed forward, into a sight where he was clearly visible. He cursed under his breath when he saw the inn door open, which revealed Johanna and an aqua haired girl, both holding a wrist of Finch's. Clearly spotting him, they began to walk towards him quickly. Having no other choice, since they had seen him, he got up and dusted himself off, waiting for whatever they had to say to come.

"Ah, so you're our apparent hero?" The girl with the hair dyed aqua said to Cato with a smirk. Roughly, she and Johanna quickly let go of Finch, the girl almost tumbling into the grass, but steadying herself just before she could fall. Slowly, the rest of Finch's rescue party crawled out from their hiding spots and joined Cato quickly.

"Finally, you can have your little space cadet back!" Johanna grinned as Finch joined her little group of rescuers, rolling her amber eyes, hoping her ex-captors hadn't seen it. Clove fiddled with a knife in her belt, tapping her foot impatiently on the ground, desperate to get going.

"Well, I guess we better get going, then." Clove muttered after several minutes of silence, looking around as her warriors and Cato gave her a nod. "I know a shortcut, so we can get back much, much quicker…" The little group nodded again, and turned away from Johanna and Marina, who didn't utter a word as they left (through the proper exit this time!) As they went, Johanna frowned. There was something off about Clove's tone… something very, very off. She didn't trust the ex-Tracker-Jacker leader at all, and before she could even stop herself, her next words came tumbling out to Marina.

"Marina, go get Annie and grab a suitcase. We… we're going on a holiday of some sort… I'll get Delly to take over while we're gone." Johanna said quickly, Marina nodding and running towards the inn. Johanna grabbed her coat and sighed, hoping what she was doing wouldn't end up being for nothing. If it had been so easy for her to kidnap Finch, it would be unbelievably easy for some crazy desperate for the formula to grab her as well, and without Finch… where would the city be? Though Clove liked to think the city was all hers, Johanna knew now that while it seemed unbelievably weird, above all the gun-holding, knife-wielding crazies that could kill with the snap of a finger, the true power belonged to a fox-faced fifteen year old who was the only person in the world who knew the key to saving their lives…

xxxx

"I'm pretty sure you're going the wrong way." Finch said to Clove and Cato as she walked through the thick forest, branches and twigs snapping under her and others scratching her arms as she went, trying to keep up with them as they journeyed towards the city. Thresh walked beside her, Clove's warriors standing at the back and the front of the small group, just in case of any danger that could arise at any moment. Clove sighed and rolled her eyes, not bothering to look back.

"It's a secret shortcut, Foxface." Clove snapped at her as she walked a little faster, keeping her mind on the brilliant thought of Finch's death just looming in the distance. "I found it while the Tracker-Jackers and I were looking for Marvel around here… before we got the real news…" She sighed. Cato looked down at the ground, smirking. Killing Marvel, in his opinion, was still his greatest achievement in this new world.

"Secret shortcut?" Thresh raised an eyebrow, but he continued to walk behind Clove, Cato and the front warriors, just because he didn't fancy him and Finch dying an early death courtesy of the weapons of those in the back. "Where exactly does the shortcut lead to?" He spoke again after a few minutes. "I know the city, but where exactly?" He grumbled, beginning to high suspect this 'shortcut' lead to a dead end or a trap of Clove's. As the dark-haired girl went to speak, trying to come up with a lie that would convince him until they were closer to the warehouse (seeing as how the warehouse was probably half an hour away, getting rid of Thresh this quickly could still give Finch an opportunity to slink away,) a voice alerted them.

"Heading back to the city?" The voice of Johanna began mockingly. "I'm amazed at your absolutely awful sense of direction! If you want to get back without heading up on the rough side or running in circles, your going the complete wrong way!" She laughed quietly as Clove and Cato turned around, giving her a death glare, which Johanna quickly returned and also gave to the warriors, who looked like they were thinking of trying to strike her, making them forget completely about the thought. Johanna certainly wasn't one to try and mess with.

"I can assure you that we know what we're doing." Cato snapped at her without thinking, eyes going down to the bags and suitcases her and her two companions were carrying. What on Earth were they doing? Certainly not trying to come back with them… right… right? That would certainly end up being quite… interesting. Thresh crossed him arms, looking over at Johanna, Annie and Marina himself. While he wasn't Johanna's biggest fan after the Finch incident, he easily trusted her a lot more than Cato, Clove and all of her warriors, even if he barely knew her.

"If you want to spend the rest of the afternoon running around in circles or getting completely lost, then, yeah, you definitely know what you're doing?" Johanna said with an eye roll as Cato shot her a glare. "Anyway, we better get going in the right direction if you want to make it back by nightfall, especially with your sense of direction!" She smirked. Clove raised an eyebrow.

"We? What do you mean by 'we?'" Clove questioned, folding her arms as she stared at Johanna and her two companions, frowning. This wasn't happening… it couldn't be! She didn't go to all that work, devising her plan to get the formula which would lead her to riches once more, and then finally get rid of Finch, for nothing! If Johanna came back with them, her Cato and the warriors couldn't be able to finish off Johanna, her companions, and Thresh, and even if they tried, Finch could easily slink away somehow!

"I'm hiring myself as Finch's personal bodyguard, so I guess my friends and I will be moving in for awhile." Johanna announced to the ex-Tracker-Jacker leader, who gave her a frown. Great. This was just what she wanted. She would need to come up with an alternative plan… even if it took a little longer than she desired. The Antidote formula would be hers, and Finch would die. She'd make absolute sure of it.

"Finch has enough protection." Clove hissed at Johanna as a last-ditch effort to get Johanna from coming home with Finch and her rescue party, though she knew deep down that Johanna was adamant. "We have my warriors." Johanna simply scoffed.

"And look at what a brilliant job they did!" Johanna said back quickly, her eyes switching to Cato instead of Clove, where they had been just seconds before. "It was almost too easy to be able to grab that Finch or whatever her name is, what stops a desperate, sick kid so desperate they'll get it again that they snatch her up and hold her hostage for a lifelong supply?" Thresh gave her a small nod. Though Cato and Clove didn't want to see it, Johanna did have a point… and he didn't trust her warriors to keep Finch safe at all. "Face it, I'm coming back with you." She snapped, walking over to Cato. "Oh, and you can carry these. Don't want our arms getting tired, do we?" She tossed her bags into Cato's arms before he could do a single thing, Marina and Annie doing the same before walking off in the right direction, the rest following.

"Seriously, she can't stay…" Cato growled, shaking his head as he trudged along with them back to the city. "She can't…" He repeated, a scowl never leaving his lips.

"Don't like the new company, bellboy?" Thresh grinned. "I'm pretty sure they'll be staying for quite awhile…"

"Oh, shut up!"

xxxx

By the late afternoon, after a lot of walking, dropping luggage, bickering and screaming, Finch, her rescue party, and Johanna, Marina and Annie had arrived back at the mall at last. Tossing the three girls' luggage on the ground carelessly, Cato immediately stalked off to his room upstairs in the Tool Shop, ignoring Finch's snark and Johanna's snapping, just wanting to be alone. The rest lingered around the front entrance by the Mockingjay fountain until they were joined by some others – Peeta, Finnick, and Rosella.

"We got Finch back, Loverboy." Clove said to Peeta, there basically no emotion in her voice as she watched him and his two companions come down the stairs and join the others by the Mockingjay fountain. Peeta looked over at Finch, and nodded, both surprised and relieved that she had come out apparently completely unscathed. What really surprised him, though, was the appearance of Johanna, Annie and Marina, and the bags at their feet, clearly indicating that they had plans to stay for awhile. Noticing his confused expression, Clove rolled her eyes. "Yeah, the country bumpkin has apparently hired herself as Finch's new bodyguard."

"This mall could do with a little more protection." Johanna muttered, stepping closer to the three Mockingjays by the stairs, shoving Clove with her elbow as she did it, not caring about what apparent 'high status' she had. She knew she could take her any day and end up winning, easy. "Especially with all the… snakes in the grass you have around here." She added. "It was almost painful how easy it was to snatch your space cadet… what stops anyone else from doing the same."

"Well, if people showed up for guard duty more often, this may have not happened!" Clove snapped at Jason, who immediately slinked back into the bunch of warriors, knowing it would be wise to keep away from Clove for as long as he could before he could be 'forgiven…' not that Clove becoming forgiving was something that occurred often. Peeta nodded at Johanna. He trusted Johanna a lot more than Clove and her warriors, and he knew that unlike them, she would definitely do her job. An idea for a deal struck in his mind.

"You want to be Finch's bodyguard?" Peeta said to her, stepping closer to Johanna. "Well, you're officially hired… but maybe we could come to a little.. agreement, while we're here?" From what Finnick had told him about Johanna after Finch had been snatched by her, she had a pretty nice farm.. which meant fresh food… something they really needed. Johanna gave him a small nod and raised an eyebrow.

"And what would that agreement be?" Johanna asked, folding her arms, keeping her eyes on him, tapping her foot lightly. "I'll just let you know first, I'm not exactly the easiest dealer." Peeta nodded, knowing what she meant. You had to come up with the best possibly deal you could, and make sure you weren't being scammed when trading around Panem… or you could easily not be able to eat that night.

"Since you're Finch's new protector and will be, by the sound of it, staying with our tribe for quite awhile, maybe we could set up a deal considering the farm that Finnick told me you run…" Peeta proposed his deal slowly, hoping it wouldn't be taken the wrong way. Johanna raised her eyebrow again and slowly nodded, taking another step closer.

"We could do something… if it's on my times." Johanna muttered, thinking as she spoke. The room fell quite for a few minutes, Peeta waiting for her answer. "Hmm… how about, in exchange for a reasonably steady supply of fresh food from my farm, you send some members of your tribe to work for us in the day." She proposed to him quickly.

"We can't, we need people back here to-" Clove started to protest, but Johanna turned around and gave her a death glare. Cursing under her breath at the other girl, Clove slunk off to her room in the Leather Shop, in an even worse mood than before.

"It sounds reasonable." Peeta nodded, looking around the small group by the fountain. "As long as Finch is protected from the crazies around, it's a deal…" He added. Johanna smirked and looked around the mall, only looking back at Peeta briefly.

"If anyone tries anything, they'll wish they didn't… if they'll even have time to wish." Johanna said back, stepping over to her group again to re-join them. "Well…" She continued, her tone now casual. "I guess me and the girls better get settled in, then." Annie and Marina smiled a little and scooped up their bags, Johanna doing the same.

Before Peeta could say anything back, or any of the others behind him, the three girls went off to claim a space of their own. Peeta looked back up at the stairs of the café, climbing up them, hoping that the bodyguard and farm agreements wouldn't fall through. Finch needed protection, especially with how shady Clove's warriors were, and fresh food was very hard to come by. He also couldn't help about the future of the tribe, and their status. The Antidote would make them the most popular people in town…

xxxx


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: This is my favourite chapter of the story so far. I hope you enjoy, and please review! **

Chapter Eleven

Two weeks later, things were going quite well for the Mockingjays. Finch was back to making the Antidote, Johanna proving a great guard, and strangely enough, even though it sounded impossible, it seemed like even some of the bigger, much more powerful gangs showed a degree of respect for them due to their possession of the life saving liquid. They were up in the ranks, and it felt good to most of them, but others couldn't help but wonder if they were in more of a risky place with all of the 'attention' they were getting. Others though, just a particular two in particular (Rory and Cato,) were just interested in making a profit.

"Hey…" Rory approached a kid in the Antidote line, a cardboard box in his hand, which already had quite a bunch of goods in it already, the id quickly turning to face him. "We're collecting donations for the sick kids, just to make them happier while they get better, you know?" He'd done this several times and it had all gone perfectly. Hopefully, this would go just the same way. "Do you have anything that you could put in the box? All donations guarantee a full course of the Antidote."

"Here, take this." The kid produced a camera from his pocket, which, after Rory inspected, was loaded with film. "I hope they'll like it." He said, putting it in the box. As he moved up with the line, Rory gave him a nod and grinned, looking down at the box, his gaze then going to Cato. Quickly, he went over with the box, careful of Peeta who was lurking nearby, talking to a girl in the line. As he caught what the two were talking about, Rory went pale. They were going to be very, very busted in a second.

"It's lovely what those two are doing.." The girl smiled, pointing to Cato and Rory. "Collecting things for the sick kids… it's so sweet, especially in the world we live in…" As she reached the table where Annie and Marina were distributing the Antidote to them all, Peeta gave her a nod and turned his attention to Cato and Rory, knowing very well that they weren't planning to start a charity! As soon as he approached them, Peeta gave them a glare, the two just looking at eachother with a smirk, not caring at all that they had been busted.

"Donations for the sick kids?!" Peeta said in a low voice through gritted teeth as he folded his arms. "Well, you two are sick, alright!" He declared, his eyes going down to the box, which he started to fish through. CD's, things that had been on top of the charts when there still had been a chart, batteries, various gadgets, and even some food. They were basically sitting on a new-world goldmine! "Seriously? Some of these kids can barely eat, and you're scamming their stuff out of them?" Cato just shrugged.

"It's a hard world out there… but if you play your cards right, you can make a good profit." Cato declared, shrugging again. "I saw the chance to get something, I took it, and those idiots fell for it." He started to laugh at the end. "If anything, it's their fault for believing the whole story, not mine." Peeta sighed, looking down at the box again, still not over their stupid scam. It was very obvious that he'd never get the box back, but he could prevent them for scamming anyone else out of their limited supplies. When he saw Johanna emerge from the workshop, he called out to her.

"Johanna!" Peeta shouted, getting her attention easily as she took a few steps closer, but still staying reasonably close to where Finch was working, waiting for the explanation. "Can you make sure that these two keep their business _away _from the Antidote line?" He muttered, pointing to Cato and Rory. In response, Johanna smirked and nodded, standing by the wall of the Workshop, in a spot where she was close enough to guard Finch and see them at the same time. Cato and Rory rolled their eyes, and went to leave.

"Sure. If they screw with the Antidote again, they won't be able to walk for a month." Johanna declared. Rory went pale, but Cato just smirked, shrugging, though he knew that she meant what she said. He had been asleep and had only had a small knife the night Finch was taken. If it happened again, he could take Johanna any day… but it didn't stop her from giving him the creeps. Peeta walked back off to take a look at the line, amazed at how quiet it had been other than the sick kids scam. Everyone seemed to be cooperating, but it was probably just because they didn't want to be denied the life-saving stuff.

"What on Earth was Rory doing this time, Peeta?" Prim sighed as she came up to him, having witnessed Johanna threatening them as she fiddled with with a bracelet she had found somewhere to pass the time, having absolutely nothing to do. Rue was down at the stream, collecting water for Thresh, who was fixing up the filtration system, Madge was having a nap since she had been up all night with Marshall, Rory was apparently up to his scams again, and there was no one else in the mall she felt comfortable talking to, so all she had been left with was a bracelet and a lot of memories of Katniss that came back full-force, making her feel even worse.

"Just up to his scams again.." Peeta sighed and shook his head. Prim looked around at Cato and Rory going upstairs with their box, and shook hers as well. It seemed unbelievably weird, especially since Cato was going to kill Rory when he first arrived at the mall, but they both seemed to like their scams… which was probably the only reason they talked.

"Rory and Cato… I have no idea how they became friends.." Prim said quietly, looking around again as Peeta nodded again in agreement and walked off to sort something out he had just spotted in the Antidote line. Looking down at the ground, Prim sighed. Was this how it was going to be now, always on her own? First her father, then her mother, then Katniss… she couldn't lose her friends too…

xxxx

After all of the sick children that had come had been served with Finch's Antidote batch for that day, the Mockingjays went up to the café for dinner, cooked by Madge. The first of the food from the farm had been brought back by the work party from the mall a few days ago, and the fresh stuff had been absolutely perfect, it nice to have some stuff from the older times, even if it was something as simple as fresh bread. Putting a bowl of soup in front of herself, Madge began to eat while listening to the conversation.

"Today went well, didn't it?" Rosella began as she ate her soup. She was a born leader, in her opinion, and by the way things were going in the mall, she was starting to get some high hopes for the future, something she hadn't had happen for awhile. "With how well things are going, I think we can finally get things going…" She paused to eat some more. "Like a tribe leader meeting-" She was quickly cut off by Cato.

"You seriously think the tribes will want change?" Cato scoffed as he stirred his soup, barely touching it. "They're only refraining from ripping us to pieces because of the Antidote… and if we start going on about change, they might just kill us anyway." He continued, eyes going down to his bowl. "Nothing's ever going to change around here. I thought you'd be used to it now. We've been stuck in hell for over a year now."

"Just because you're clearly miserable, doesn't mean everyone else is." Marina sighed, tucking a strand of her dyed hair behind her ear, looking around at the rest of the bunch. "With the Antidote now proved to exist and curing people, we have hope. We can make something now. It's not like the early days anymore." A few people gave her small nods, while Cato gave her a glare.

"Exactly! That's why I have a plan. We can clean this place up, set up rules and laws, like a Bill of Rights." Rosella said, clearly thinking that she had come up with the best possible solution to their problem possible. "We can present it to the tribe leaders and get them to sign-" She was abruptly cut off by Clove.

"Slow down there… a Bill of Rights?" Clove frowned. "There's no way the tribe leaders will agree to that, absolutely no way. They do what they want, and won't listen to something on paper… no matter how hard you try." She rolled her eyes and folded her arms, making Rosella frown and sigh. To her, she just thought that it was Clove just wanting to get her way, while others could see some point to her words.

"Fine! Just don't run to me when everyone starts to kill eachother again!" Rosella burst out and got up, storming downstairs to her room. Clove smirked and continued to eat, while the rest groaned. While things seemed smooth for awhile, they all knew it wasn't going to last forever."

xxxx

The Elite had made themselves a base in the woods, where there we many great caves and crevices to hide while they built up their strength and got what they most wanted. They had desired the great cathedral that was just about in the middle of Panem, but for now, it was too risky. First, they would have to get stronger and larger. With the powers of their god within them, they thought they could do anything. Marvel knew what was right. Marvel told them what they needed. Marvel would make sure they didn't die, and would keep his name alive forever.

That morning, they were gathered in what used to be a wheat field, all standing in a circle with The Great One, in his fine white robes, green eyes glinting in the sunlight as he watched his tribe, spears and torches in their hands. They were loyal. They were ready. They were going to be with the Cause for life, even if it meant becoming a sacrifice for their god. They would do anything for the Cause, absolutely anything. It was an honour Marvel had picked them in the first place.

"We have gathered here, brethren, so we finally complete our task, our first of many for our great god." The Great One began, everyone in the tribe completely silent, giving full respect to him. "The Grand Family must be complete. Mother Supreme and The Child of Chaos must be ours within the next two weeks. Any longer will be a bad omen." He continued, looking up at the sky once he was done. "Oh mighty Marvel, we hear you! We will get rid of the heathen and bring you justice!" He shouted into the sky.

"Marvel! Marvel! Marvel!" The chants of the Elite lasted for quite awhile, before drowning out when The Great One gestured for a red haired man to step forward, as well as five Elite members, clothed in the same purple robes as they had always worn.

"Lieutenant Darius, you and our chosen five will embark on a journey to find Mother Supreme and The Child of Chaos, and bring them to us. You may only return when you find them." The Great One ordered.

"It is an honour, Great One." A chosen girl in a purple robe nodded. As they went to leave, chanting began again. It was a grand day… an absolutely grand day…

xxxx

The next three days for the Mockingjays came and went. The Antidote distribution was finished off much faster than the day before, and the tribe were left with a mainly free afternoon. This meant of course that Rory, Cato and surprisingly Marina after she had discovered them had gone down to play poker in the Service Area, Rue and Thresh were situated in the Hobby Shop working on the filtration system with the water she had brought back, Finch was making her Antidote, Johanna was guarding her, Finnick had gone off to fish and had taken Annie who had nothing to do with him, and Clove and Rosella were squabbling about the Bill of Rights… again. Peeta had had enough and was sitting on the steps alone, while Prim and Madge were in Kitchenware with Marshall, and had decided to take the baby out to the park by the river. It would do him good to get some fresh air.

"Hey, Peeta." Madge smiled as she came down the stairs, the baby in her arms, but it quickly faded once she saw how down he looked. All the fighting, Katniss' death, and all the pressure of leading alone was getting to him, and it was definitely easy to see that it was taking a toll on him. Prim followed behind, dragging the pram she had discovered crammed in an old fridge on a walk around down the stairs with her.

"Oh, Madge." Peeta stood up and turned around, giving her a small smile. "Where are you three going?" He asked, telling easily by their coats and the pram. "And can I come?" He asked, hoping he wasn't intruding on some 'girl time.' He wanted to get out of the mall desperately, and going on a walk with the three seemed like a great opportunity.

"Of course." Madge smiled as she reached the front entrance of the mall, Marshall babbling nonsense as Prim and the blonde boy joined them. "We're going to the park, by the river. We all need some fresh air, and the scenery is still actually nice there…" She mumbled, the group relatively quiet as they travelled to the park carefully. Prim gently put Marshall in the pram as they reached the park, wheeling him across the grass, stopping it at a spot that had nice view of the river.

"If you want to have a chat or something, I'll watch him, keep him safe." Prim said as she looked down at the baby, Peeta and Madge walking off towards a spot by some large rocks by the river, the idea of a chat a nice break from all of the insanity that had surrounded the last few months. Prim smiled as they went, rocking Marshall's pram as she spotted a nice patch of flowers. Walking away from the pram, not going far, she started to pick them…

xxxx

"It's nice out here, isn't it?" Peeta said as he perched himself on a rock, looking down at the river flowing, then looking at Madge who sat beside him. It had been much too long since they had had a proper chat together. When he tried to think, he could only remember back to a chat they had before the Mutt attack had happened and he had confided in her about his crush on Katniss. It was hard to believe how much had happened since then… now, sadly, Katniss was gone.

"It's a nice break." Madge nodded, looking around and absentmindedly kicking her feet against the rock underneath them. "It's so peaceful out here… I love it. It seems like you can kind of forget while you out here, you know what I mean? About Marvel, Katniss… everything like that…" Her last words were just a murmur. Peeta gave her a solemn nod.

"It's hard to believe how much we've been through, isn't it?" Peeta squeezed her hand. "But we've powered through… you're like the sister I never had." He managed a smile. "I'm glad I still have you at least Madge, even if everything else is slipping away. And Marsha-" He was cut off by a loud scream of absolute horror.

"MADGE! PEETA! COME QUICK! PLEASE!" Prim screamed from her spot by the river, absolutely terrified. Immediately, extremely worried, Madge and Peeta carefully got off the rocks, raced past the river, and back to Prim, having absolutely no idea of the sight awaiting them. A distraught Prim stood by the pram, weeping hysterically. Heart racing, Madge stepped back, suspecting something she had hoped never would happen. No. No. To the horror of Madge and Peeta, Marshall's pram was empty.

"Marshall! Prim, where is he?!" Madge cried, shaking Prim's shoulders desperately, unable to get a hold on herself. "WHERE IS HE?" She roared, still unable to get a hold on herself. "WHERE IS HE?! WHERE IS MY BABY?!"

"I-I was only just picking flowers! He was right in the pram! I didn't go far, I swear!" Prim sobbed, taking a step back from the desperate, terrified Madge. "He was right in the pram! He was!"

"He isn't in there now… Come on, Prim, where is he?" Peeta said, though he knew the girl had no idea. He would soon be as desperate as she was getting.

"WHERE. IS. MY. BABY?!" Madge cried, grabbing the pillow out of the pram and hugging it to her chest, sobbing even harder. This couldn't be happening… but it was. Her baby was gone. Snatched. Would she ever find her precious son again?

xxxx


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Thank you to Lya200 for reviewing. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please review!**

Chapter Twelve

"Prim, where is he?!" Madge repeated again, absolutely desperate for an answer. Right around her, right in that very moment, her world was crashing again. Marshall was her world. He couldn't be gone, he just couldn't! Him and Peeta were everything to her… and it would completely shatter her if either one of them left her life, but at the moment, it seemed like that was the awful, shocking truth. "Prim…" Her voice shook madly as she repeated her words again. "Where… where is he?" Prim sniffled, body shaking as madly as the other girl's voice had been just seconds ago, having no idea of what to say.

"I… I… I swear I was only picking flowers!" Prim cried again once she finally spoke up, looking around at the empty pram as Madge hugged the pillow she had taken from it even tighter. "If I reached out, I could still touch his pram!" She continued. All three of them, Madge, Peeta and Prim, were both terrified and baffled at the same time. Marshall, baby Marshall, the child who had already been through a fair lot in his mere four months in the horrible world around him, stolen… and by who, and how was it managed so quickly?

"How about we search the riverbank?" Peeta proposed, though he knew secretly that it would probably be for nothing. He had to try though, even though he was just clinging to probable false hope. Madge nodded tearfully, and the two, Prim following behind them, it not feeling right to walk by them anymore, considering what she thought she was responsible for, searched around the riverbank quietly. When nothing showed itself, Madge collapsed to the ground in tears, unable to find the strength to stand anymore. Peeta tried to help her up, but she stayed on the ground, too scared she'd fall again.

"Madge?" Prim murmured, rubbing her sore, swollen red eyes as the tears kept coming. Before she could stop it from coming out, knowing the two words would mean nothing considering what had just happened, the thirteen year old spoke again. "I… I'm sorry…" She sobbed as Madge broke down again. The girl looked up at her, tears streaming down her cheeks as she tried to pull herself back up gradually with her hands, Peeta helping her. Even though she wasn't very close to the two blondes, she could easily see the hurt, and the anger that was forming in the girl's light blue orbs.

"I don't care, you stupid girl!" Madge cried, unable to control her emotions anymore she was so upset. Peeta pulled her up, trying to come up with something quickly. He was without a doubt as shattered as Madge was about Marshall's disappearance, but Madge blowing up at Prim wouldn't solve anything, and would only make Madge more upset and Prim more afraid. "Just get out of my sight!" She continued before Peeta could try and stop her. "I hate you! Because of you, my baby is gone!" She completely exploded at Prim, who turned away from her, and broke into a run, running deep into the trees of the park, Peeta unable to see her anymore.

"Madge!" Peeta sighed as she leaned into him for comfort, hugging him tightly. "We… we need to look for her. It wasn't her fault, really. It wasn't…" He mumbled. It was obvious to him that if they left Prim out on her own, guilt eating away at her, things would get even worse, though it didn't seem like it could even be possible with how things had already gone.

"We need to get back to the mall!" Madge insisted, burying her head in his chest. "We need to get people out looking for him, as soon as possible! We can't leave him out there, with whoever has him… we can't!" She sniffled. Peeta sighed, and nodded, knowing that no matter how hard he tried to protest it wouldn't change anything, and they would only be stuck in the park for longer. He made a mental note to get a search going for Prim as well, even if Madge didn't want it. It felt like a duty to Katniss to keep Prim protected, even though he had never made such a promise.

"Come on, we better get going, and fast." Peeta nodded quickly as Madge reluctantly pulled herself out of the hug and started to walk, feeling as if her legs could give out underneath her at any moment. Peeta took her hand and squeezed it, looking down at the grass crunching underneath their boots, thinking sadly to himself that this was meant to be a peaceful walk… not a complete disaster. Would they ever get Marshall back? He hoped they would desperately… Marshall was his only blood relative left, and he couldn't bear the thought of losing him forever…

xxxx

In the centre of the city, oblivious to what had occurred in the park with Madge, Peeta, Prim and Marshall, were Rue and Thresh, in one of the government buildings, one that was quite close to where Finch had discovered the formula for the Antidote. Thresh didn't want to do any investigation without Finch, but on one of the limited occasions that she came out of her workshop, she told him that if he had time, to pay a visit to a certain she had taken a look at one night after she had finished up with her Antidote making for the day, and knowing it would please her, he agreed to it. In his mind, he wondered how she got the energy to do everything she did… and then remembered the both interesting and horrifying time she didn't sleep for almost a week straight when they were researching Feather Mountain… but it still kept him wondering.

"So, what do we look for, exactly?" Rue asked him as they walked up the steps to the second floor of the building. She had asked if she could come with him as soon as she saw him leaving, there nothing to do in the mall. Madge, Peeta and Prim had gone on a walk to the park with Marshall, Rory was playing poker with Cato and Marina, everyone else seemed to have no time… and she certainly wasn't going to ask Clove, who was looking quite bored by the fountain if she wanted to hang out anytime soon. "I know for Virus stuff, but from what I've heard before, it isn't exactly right in front of you…"

"Just look for things that seem suspicious, things that don't give much away… Finch and I might have the rest of the information on our files." Thresh replied as he looked around at the second floor, which looked mostly like an average office space. Rue gave him a nod, and went over in the direction of the left side of the floor slowly as Thresh took the left. She knew, if there was any trouble, she could just call for Thresh, armed with his knife, and he'd be able to help her… not that there seemed to be much around except for a lot of dust, cobwebs, and rats.

The two looked around for quite awhile, but nothing seemed of much significance to the case, not even hinting at anything that could be linked to the Virus, until Rue spotted something coming out of a little hole in the wall, obviously the home of a mouse. A black, thin line, which was discovered once she looked harder as a tangled videotape. Odd. Extremely odd. Rue didn't think anyone used videotapes anymore… she had only seen them a few times, courtesy of old home movies. Something had to be on it, something that was worth inspecting.

"Thresh?" Rue began as she slowly tried to get the tape out of the hole without doing any further damage, something that was proving itself quite difficult. "I think I found something…" Quickly, Thresh came over, trying to look for the girl in the maze of desks and offices as she called out again, him quickly finding her. "A videotape, all tangled up in the wall. If it's on a tape… it has to have something of some significance on it. I didn't think people used them anymore."

"It could be a recording of some sort." Thresh nodded as he kneeled down to help her get the tape out. "It may just be some movie that's made it's way here somehow, but it's better than bringing back cobwebs…" He said as more of the tape began to be freed from the hole, leaving the two with a complete, tangled mess. "Now, we need to see if we can find a case… we need to try and get this back to it's normal state." Rue nodded, and began to look around for one. The place was full of all different things, broken CDs full of the 'latest' hits or beloved oldies, cracked computer monitors, litter and debris that had made it's way in through the broken window, among one of the piles a bunch of cracked… video tape cases!

"Found one!" Rue exclaimed, bringing it back to Thresh quickly, who took the cracked case from her hand and started to attempt to untangle the tape. "Hopefully there's something on it that's useful…" As Thresh continued to untangle the tape, the two started to leave. The tape was the best thing they had got from the visit so far, and it would take some time to get it ready to see if they could play it, so it was best to leave now.

As the started to leave, a cupboard started to open quietly, though the two had absolutely no idea, chatting about the tape as they walked down the stairs, not watching behind them. They thought the place was abandoned, only the home of rats. A brunette haired girl peeked out of the cupboard… a girl who just happened to be Rosella. She had to see what was happening. With the tape, they were getting closer… and it just couldn't be happening.

"Not the tape…." Rosella said to herself. "Hopefully their stupid enough to stop it just as it fades to black…" She sighed, watching as the two continued to leave the building.

xxxx

"I think that's all for today, it's going to get late soon, and it's better to get back before sunset." Finnick nodded to Annie as the two began to sort out the fish they had caught that day. It had been nice to have some company for once while he fished, and Annie was quite a good fisherwoman. "Thanks for coming out with me today." He added as he grabbed his bag and packed up his net.

"It's alright, there was no one else around that I really knew that wasn't doing anything. Johanna was guarding that Finch girl's lab, and I didn't want to bother her… and Marina was playing poker with that boy and that older guy… who gives me the creeps." Annie muttered as she took her bag, Finnick laughing lightly as they began to walk.

"You'll get used to everyone eventually." Finnick chuckled. "The mall can get rather… _dramatic_ at times, but it's worth it for all the protection." Annie nodded. "I like it enough there to stay, but I don't know many of them well." Silence enveloped the two after that, and the two just walked, until the sound of sobbing filled their ears, accompanied by a familiar voice.

"It's alright, Madge, we're almost back… we'll find him, I promise." Peeta said to the girl, who Annie and Finnick could only see faintly through the trees. Both wondered what was wrong, not being able to connect the dots, trying to think as they slowly walked towards the two on what could be wrong. They both also knew that it was extremely foolish to sneak up on someone in this new world, so they'd have to be extremely careful. Luckily for them, avoiding having to try and come up with something that would get them noticed, Peeta saw them. "Finnick, Annie!" He called out, though his tone sounded glum, and most of all, defeated.

"Peeta, isn't it?" Annie mumbled as she came over to Peeta and the still sobbing Madge, Finnick following, the two now walking beside the others as Peeta nodded in response. "Is… is everything okay?" She asked, and immediately realised how stupid that question was… poor Madge was practically sobbing her heart out!

"My.. my baby!" Madge cried, almost falling like she had in the park. "He-he-he he's gone!" Peeta put his arm around her again, trying to steady her. It was obvious that without Marshall, she'd never even be remotely the same again. Finnick raised an eyebrow. It was hard to believe that anyone would steal anything, let alone a _baby _from the Mockingjays, the saviours of the city, the distributors of the Antidote… but it was exactly the case.

"We'll search for him, Madge, alright?" Finnick said, trying to reassure her. From what he had heard about Madge from whispers and stories from before he had arrived at the mall, she had been through complete hell. She had her boyfriend unable to handle the Virus and the crumbling world around them, and went insane and started the most fearsome gang in the city, she had found out she was pregnant with said boyfriend's child as the Virus was reaching devastating heights, and if it wasn't for Peeta, she would've died, she had to give birth in an old mall with only a bunch of teenagers to help her through, and the father of her child died right in front of her… she didn't need this! "We'll search for him as soon as we can." He said quickly as they entered the mall.

"Everybody, come down! It's urgent!" Peeta called, cursing under his breath when no one came. "This is serious! We need everyone down here, and quickly!" He called again as he sat Madge down on a green bench on the lower floor before she could collapse like she had by the riverbank. Slowly, people came down out of their rooms and spaces, Thresh and Rue arriving with the tape through the front entrance, Finch and Johanna coming out of the lab, Rosella, who had followed Thresh and Rue coming in through the sewers a few minutes later, Cato, Marina and Rory next, and Clove, who looked extremely bored, last.

"Where's Prim?" Rue asked after everyone had gathered, making Peeta want to groan, knowing that there would be a very, very large explosion of Madge soon, but it wasn't like the girl knew what happened. Before anyone could say a word, Madge stood up, put down the pillow she had taken from Marshall's crib, and walked right up to the group as she spoke.

"Seriously?! My baby is missing, and all you can care about is the STUPID GIRL who lost her?!" Madge cried, looking around at the group, who now though she was going a little crazy. "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! MY BABY IS GONE, AND IT'S ALL HER FAULT, AND NO ONE EVEN CARES?!"

"One word: fruitcake." Cato whispered to Marina with a laugh, but it wasn't quiet enough. Madge stepped back, having heard, and clenched her fists, now on the verge of blowing up with such intensity that Peeta wouldn't be surprised if the walls in the mall shook… but he had to stop her from doing it as best as he could.

"I WISH YOU WERE STOLEN INSTEAD! IT'S NOT LIKE ANYONE **LIKES**-" Madge began to shout, but was surprisingly cut off by Annie, to the relief of everyone. Madge, in this state, so unlike herself it was terrifying, was something absolutely no one wanted to witness.

"Um… Madge?" Annie slowly put an arm around the hysterical girl, trying to offer some comfort. "How about we go get you some hot chocolate with marshmallows… then we can sort this out?" Before Madge could do anything, Annie slowly lead her upstairs, to the relief of absolutely everyone.

"We'll send some people to search tomorrow… for now… just let that _thing _calm down.." Cato muttered, his comment pretty much dismissing everyone, Peeta sighing when everyone left. This was one of the worst things that had happened in this world so far… and he had piles and piles to pick from…

xxxx

It had been a brilliant day for the Elite, and Lieutenant Darius knew that The Great One would definitely be pleased with the work that he and the chosen Elite had done. As they reached their cave base, the sleeping baby in the arms of the Elite behind him, he waited to be let back in. Once he gave the password and the chosen Elite walked in behind him, the first face he saw was the one of The Great One, obviously eager for news.

"We have brought you the Child of Chaos, Great One." The woman next to the one holding the baby nodded. The Great One nodded, opening his arms to receive the child from the woman as the other Elite members began to file into the main part of the cave. They knew what was going to happen. The ceremony. They had heard about it millions of times… but now they finally had what they desired the most.

"Good. He shall be dressed in fine robes and then we shall have our ceremony." The Great One nodded. "This joyous day will be remembered forever. It simply must." He disappeared to dress the child, while the rest of the Elite waited for him to return. Dressed in their purple robs, hoods back, spears and torches in their hands, they were all standing in a semi-circle around a little basket that had been made to look like a cot resting on a large, sturdy rock, surrounded by dozens of purple candles, Elite colour, of course, all preparing for the child's initiation into the tribe.

"Here is the knife, Great One." An Elite member that was dressed in red, meaning he was a higher Elite passed the knife to the leader as he returned. The Great One nodded, and went up to the cot surrounded by candles, raised the baby so all could see him, and then placed him down in the cot slowly.

"Behold Marshall, the child of Marvel… let him here our call!" The Great One shouted as he cut his thumb with the blade, marking the child's forehead with the blood. "Let him hear our call!"

The chants rang out what what felt like decades. Marshall was now the Elite's… and they were desperate to get their Mother Supreme next…

xxxx


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

The dumpster was disgusting, eerily quiet, dark, slightly damp and just about full to the brim, but it was the only place around that Prim could hide in without feeling as if she would be found, whether by Peeta or any of the other Mockingjays, or another gang or tribe around in the city. It was night, from her last check outside, her stomach was gnawing with hunger, and she was stuck on what she was going to to when the sun rose the next day. She knew immediately that she couldn't go back to the mall and face Madge and Peeta, but mostly Madge, and it wasn't like she could stay around the city forever without one of the Mockingjays eventually finding her, and what if she caught the Virus? The Mockingjays were the only ones with the Antidote.

"Perhaps it would be for the best." Prim voiced her next thought out loud. "I'd be with Katniss again." She mumbled, missing her deceased sister more than ever on this awful night in the dumpster. Katniss was free now. No gangs, no weapons, no one out to get her. She didn't have to live in the awful world they had all been thrown into anymore. She was back with their parents, finally able to be happy. In this moment, Prim envied her.

She lay there in the dumpster for about half an hour, thinking about how Katniss was finally free from the horrors of this world, and how death could free them all, when the thought finally hit her. _No. Katniss wouldn't want you thinking like this. She would want you to keep going. _Where would she go, though? The city seemed like a death trap, even though things had settled a tiny bit (key word being tiny) after the Mockingjays came forward with the Antidote and the formula, and an easy place to be found again. She'd have to get out, try her luck somewhere else.

The country. That would work. Out in the fresh air, find somewhere to call her own… just like her and Katniss had intended before they had found Rue, and then Finch and the mall that long time ago. She shut her eyes tightly, trying to block out the fact that she was hiding in a dumpster that was practically overflowing with garbage, and instead tried to think of the new life she'd try to make for herself in the country. Shutting her eyes tighter, she promised herself she'd leave first thing in the morning, after she looked for some food. She couldn't face Madge and Peeta again, not after what she had thought she'd let just happen to poor little Marshall, who they may not even see again, she just couldn't, but she couldn't just give up, either. She had to keep going, just like Katniss would've wanted her to.

xxxx

It was early morning for the Mockingjays, and the group were gathered around the fountain of the tribe's namesake, with the exception of Finch, who had already started making her Antidote batch for the day, and Johanna, who as always, was guarding her while she did it. Cato, surprisingly up at a decent time and not hung over for once, unlike the past few weeks, lead the meeting since he was in charge of most of the mall's security, but he didn't care at all about going out to look for Marshall or Prim, and instead looked quite bored. As the final stragglers joined the bunch, he began to speak.

"Now that almost all of you are here, we can finally get this over with." Cato muttered, folding his arms. Standing beside him were Clove and her warriors on his left, and a glaring Peeta on the other side. "Loverboy, Clove, Finnick, Annie, Marina and myself will go off to look for the stupid kid and Marvel's demon spawn, while the rest of you stay here, distribute the Antidote, and guard." He nodded. "Now, are there any questions before we finally get out of here?" Immediately, Madge stepped forward, Peeta going over to her quickly, hoping she wouldn't launch into one of her now 'famous' freak outs.

"Why can't I look for my own child? I care more than almost any of you do!" Madge asked, her tone slightly calmer than it had been the day before. Everyone, even Cato, could see that it wouldn't be a wise idea to let her outside to look for Marshall, especially in her state… and they didn't want her freaking out and accidentally causing more drama for them, or could end up running into the wrong person and getting into a lot of trouble herself.

"Madge, we understand that you want to look for him, because he's your son and-" Annie began to her in a calm voice, as if she was talking to a small child on the brink of a loud tantrum. Peeta was secretly relieved that Annie had spoken before Cato could give her an answer, which would probably include a remark about her being crazy, which would only make her freak out again, which provided a source of prim entertainment for Cato, but everyone else dread and sadness for the poor girl.

"You don't!" Madge cried, wrapping her arms around herself as she went over to the seat on the green bench close to the fountain, seemingly shaking crazily. "None of you can understand, unless you've carried a child for nine months and gone through hell giving birth!" She began to sob, and Peeta helped her up, and took her up to her room in Kitchenware, softly rubbing her back. Marshall, who had once been a curse for her, another person to worry about in this awful new world… but he had quickly become the thing that kept her sane in it, too. If Marshall never was found, this was only the beginning.

"Well…" Cato sighed, rolling his eyes as he leaned against the fountain. "Does anyone have any other questions, or can we finally go?" He continued, sounding more bored than ever. No one else said anymore, so he simply nodded and gathered the group going to go and search, which quickly went to leave. Peeta quickly caught up to the bunch, having calmed down the girl as much as he could. He didn't want to leave Madge, but he desperately wanted to do his best to get his nephew back too… and Prim, he couldn't just leave the poor girl alone. He would get her back, for Katniss. She'd want him to take care of him, for her, and now it felt like his duty to her.

He followed the others silently, desperately hoping they'd come back with something.

xxxx

After Cato and his group that went to search for Prim and Marshall left, Thresh and Rue went back up to the Hobby Shop to work on the filtration system and the mystery of the tape. Immediately, right from the first time he had seen her from breakfast this morning, Thresh knew she was completely miserable, though Rue was trying to hide it as best she could. When they entered the workshop, he wondered if he should suggest watching the tape to her, but he didn't know if delving into Virus stuff would make her feel even worse than she already did.

Instead, he took out a section of the water filtration system and the plan he and Finch had made together, placed it on the bench, and began to work on it in silence. Since Rue wasn't making any attempt to make conversation, instead sitting on one of the old rickety stools and fiddling with parts of the contraption until he needed, Thresh's mind drifted to Finch. Finch. He missed her, which was odd, because they still talked whenever they got the chance and managed to keep their relationship going, but it didn't feel the same anymore. He didn't feel like they were as close as they were just after the Mutts attacked and took Peeta and Cato, and the Virus investigation and each other's company were basically the only things keeping them going… how time's changed, especially in such a short month and a half.

"Thresh?" Rue's small, soft voice snapped him out of his thoughts of missing Finch, and secretly, he was quite glad of it. Thresh looked up and gave her a nod, meant to gesture he was listening to the other girl. "We fixed up the tape, right?" He nodded. "Can we watch it? I really want to try to get my mind off…." She trailed off, as if she was unable to say her last words, but Thresh knew what she was going to say.

"Sounds like good idea." Thresh replied, going over to a large cupboard covered with old coats and debris at the bottom (that unknown to them Rosella was hiding underneath, determined not to miss a moment of anything to do with that tape) and a few little drawers at the top. He took the old tape out of the top drawer, got it ready, and pressed 'PLAY.' Then, he sat down on a stool next to Rue, watching eagerly as a picture filled the screen, simply of an official-looking man in a suit, in a white-tiled room. As they began to speak, everyone listened, especially Rosella in the closet, though she had heard it many times before… and the conversation that followed afterwards.

_'__Good evening, Panem. I am Plutarch Heavensbee, a representative from Capitol Medicine, here to give you an update on the aging pandemic sweeping the world. So far, we are still trying to figure out an Antidote, but all hope is not lost. We have found the cause of this horrifying pandemic, lying in our very Solar System. Scientists say a comet is what is to blame for this virus sweeping the nation. The tail of this particular comet brought the Virus into our atmosphere, contaminating the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe… but hope is not all lost. Since we have a cause for this awful sickness, we are closer to defeating this plague from the stars. Good evening, I am Plutarch Heavensbee for Capitol Medicine.' _

Then, the screen went black, leaving the two completely surprised by the information, so surprised they didn't even speak to one another, or get up to turn off the tape. Rosella was biting her nails. They were getting closer… no! She couldn't let them find out… but she couldn't exactly go out there, and turn off the tape herself, could she? Her thoughts went back to the baseball bat she saw in the corner of the shop when she went to hide in the cupboard. Perfect. She had to wait for them to leave, then she could destroy the tape, all evidence of it forever. Her grandfather had gotten all of the other tapes with the recording on the end destroyed, but this one somehow managed to survive… which was both frustrating and deadly, if they got the rest of the evidence. Then, the voices came back, alerting Thresh and Rue again. The screen was still black, but the voices were returning.

_'__Well done, Heavensbee. That was quite a performance back there.' _

_'__Thank you, sir. I'm sure a comet was quite believable.' _

_'__It was pure genius.'_

_Laughing. Then nothing more. _

"Wait… what was that?" Rue asked Thresh after the tape ended, who was just as baffled as she was. "So that was a television broadcast… that turned out to be a lie… how many others do you think could be the same thing?" Thresh stood up, and replayed the tape's last minutes, to see if he was hearing things. No. All still there. It hit both of them at the same time. If this was a complete lie, how much else of the adult's broadcasts were? From all of the things they had to do to find the Antidote, even losing lives in the process, they knew that they weren't just jumping to conclusions.

"Let's get the others… they need to know." Thresh said, leaving the tape on the counter as Rosella listened hard for footsteps, and once sure they were gone, climbed out of the cupboard. She searched around for the baseball bat again, grabbed the silver thing quickly, and went over to the tape. Raising it above her head as if she was using an axe, she brought it down on the tape, over, and over.

"You would've been pleased, grandfather." Rosella said to herself. "You would've definitely been pleased…"

xxxx

Clove had broken off from the group looking for Prim and Marshall ages ago, sick of all the bickering and yelling, and had decided to do a little bit of 'exploring' in the woods (really, she was just extremely bored.) It seemed all just the same, trees, trees and wait for it…. more trees, until she heard some chanting up ahead. Hiding behind a large rock, Clove watched.

"Mother Supreme! Mother Supreme! Mother Supreme!" They chanted. That was when Clove spied something in the hands of one of the tribe members… Marshall! _So these are the creeps that have the kid.. _She thought to herself, more dots connecting in her head. _Wait… if they have Marshall, and keep on saying this Mother Supreme thing… does that mean they want Madge next? _She was snapped out of her delightful thoughts of the hysterical Madge being snatched by a hand on her neck, pulling her toward the person who grabbed her.

"The Unbeliever… I haven't seen you in a long time." The Great One smirked at her. Clove didn't bother to even pretend she was terrified. She had a deal all worked out already… and it would definitely be something they wanted. "You wish to be sacrificed to the cause, I see?"

"Cause? Oh Abe, you always had a few screws lose, didn't you?" Clove taunted. The Great One gripped her tighter, and gathered some guards. "You don't wish to harm me."

"It's The Great One Now." He response, raising an eyebrow at her last words. "What is it that you think you have?" Clove gave them a deranged smile.

"I can get you your Mother Supreme, if you let me go. If I don't… well, I'm sure you can invent something in your sick mind for me." The Elite let go of her, and she began to walk away.

"Remember, if you don't, we'll find you!" They called. Clove nodded, and ran back towards the city.

xxxx


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Thank you to Lya200 and Glory of Lorien for reviewing, it means a lot to me. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please review!**

**Glory of Lorien - Yes, the Elite are crazy Tracker-Jackers, ones that abandoned the tribe after Clove became leader. They have farms up in the country that they control, and more will be revealed in the third book about all of their resources. Marvel isn't still alive, the Elite just think they can 'speak' to him and that he can 'guide' them to greatness. Sorry if it confused you :)  
**

Chapter Fourteen

Thresh and Rue headed to the café, unaware of what had just happened to their precious tape, to find a less-than impressive crowd waiting for them there – no one. Madge was downstairs, distributing the Antidote to the city kids, trying to keep her mind off her stolen child and onto something else, which wasn't particularly working, but she still managed to keep herself together, Rory was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Rosella, until the two turned around to leave the café.

"Oh, hey guys." Rosella said casually to Rue and Thresh, trying her hardest to keep a calm demeanour, glad she was succeeding. Over the years, due to her grandfather's position in his company and the tangled webs of lies and secrets she was often thrown into had made her into a good liar and actor. "Are you doing anything?" She asked as the two turned around, Rue giving her a small smile.

"Rosella… could you spare a minute?" Rue asked, hoping Thresh wouldn't mind her speaking first. He gave her a small nod and stayed quiet, so she thought it would be alright to keep speaking. "We found something about the Virus, something that could help us figure out a lot, and since you're the only one around and available… maybe you could come and take a look at it?" Rosella faked a look of curiosity, and nodded, wondering how they would take the wrecked tape… would they be furious, defeated, or just desperate to find out who did it?

Rue and Thresh nodded to her again, and began to lead the way out of the café and to the Hobby Shop, having no idea on what was waiting for them inside. The three walked in silence, until they got inside, Rue pulling out a stool for Rosella to sit on, her nor Thresh noticing the now mangled yet.

"We found this videotape in a government building, and we fixed it up and got it to play." Thresh began to explain, Rosella sitting down on the stool and nodding, though she already knew what was coming. She couldn't let her guard down. She had before, in the past, and it had almost gotten her killed. "It started off as a news broadcast, but there was something odd on the end we wanted the tribe to see." Again, Rosella nodded as Thresh went to grab the tape. "It's right he-" He reached a hand out for the tape, his eyes widening at the sight of it. "Rue, did you see anyone come in here when we headed to the café?" Thresh asked.

"No, why?" Rue asked, turning around to face the older boy, her eyes widening just as he had when she saw the awful, broken tape. Rosella faked a gasp, and forced herself not to smirk. Her secret was still safe… for now, and she was hoping to keep it that way, even if she had to do things she'd probably regret sometime in the future. Her green eyes swerved back to the very confused pair by the videotape, their brows furrowed as they stared at the tape, trying to figure out what on Earth happened.

"What could've done this?" Thresh muttered, folding his arms. "And so quickly? We couldn't have been gone any longer than ten minutes…" He stared at the tape again, focussing on it fully. They would never be able to get it back together now, not in a million years, so the secrets of the tape were gone forever. Looking for another copy would be pointless and a complete waste of time. All they had left was to keep looking at the Feather Mountain files and searching the government buildings… and then, if they found nothing else, they'd be in the dark again. They'd discovered the Antidote, but now wanted the how and why this had even occurred in the first place.

"That's awful." Rosella stood up and walked over to them, searching through the tape. "No one in the Antidote line could've snuck up and done this, could they?" Thresh, Rue and the brunette left the room for a brief second, staring down at the line of oddly-dressed, ill city kids desperate for their dose, and Clove's warriors who were meant to be keeping order – all just leaning against the wall, looking bored, one even sitting on a crate in the corner of the mall with a bottle of beer and a comic book. And these guys were apparently hired to help protect us? Well, they're just about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Thresh thought angrily.

Walking back into the Hobby Shop, Thresh went back over to the tape, determined to get to the bottom of who destroyed it, and why.

xxxx

Rory carefully walked through the city streets, determined not to waste a day cooped up in the mall when he could be out gambling, or getting in on a good scam and making a good profit. He knew better than to go back to the Mutts' gambling den, not after what he had done to the Mockingjays, but had heard of a place around that he could probably make a small fortune at. Not wanting to waste anymore time, he had decided to take a shortcut through the park, quietly whistling to himself until he swore he heard something strange coming from the dumpster he was passing.

Sniffling. The dumpster was sniffling… though that was impossible. Frowning, Rory looked around, and carefully opened the lid of the dump, immediately hit by the awful smell of rotting garbage. Coughing madly, his eyes immediately landed on the thing that was producing the noise – Prim! The small blonde girl immediately darted up, rubbing her blue eyes as she looked up at him, annoyed with herself in her head. She should've left for the country earlier, much earlier.

"Prim? What are you doing in there?" Rory asked, extending a hand out for Prim to grab, her not making a move out of the filthy dumpster. Grumbling, Rory put his hands in his pockets, eye not leaving her. He couldn't help but notice how terrified she looked, as if he was going to morph into a Jabberjay and slit her throat at any given moment. "Come on, we have to take you back to the mall. Peeta's worried sick, and so was Rue and I…"

"No, I can't, I can't!" Prim cried, shaking her head madly, her hair, which had once been in two neat braids, now unruly and tangled, flying all over to place. She rubbed her eyes again, looking down at the first thing in the dumpster she could see, an old milk carton, not wanting to look at Rory at all. He was her old friend, though he could make awful choices at times and the fact that he had started to hang out with Cato hadn't exactly helped him make better ones, but they were still quite close… but he had to understand, she couldn't go back, not after poor Marshall had been snatched, it all being her fault.

"If you're worried about Madge and Peeta, it's fine! Cato and a bunch of the others are our looking for the baby – and you!" Rory persisted, starting to climb up the dumpster as Prim continued to shout protest. Eventually, Rory got up and grabbed her hands, giving her no choice but to have to get out, though she desperately didn't want to.

As soon as the two were back on the ground, Rory began to lead (though it was more like dragging the girl) Prim back to the mall, her protesting the whole way as Rory tried to reassure her. He didn't want to lose Prim, his only friend left since the Virus struck. Rue was his friend too, but he felt like it wasn't the same, and Cato… well, Rory had the feeling one day he'd screw up really badly, and Cato would dart off and leave him to deal with the consequences himself. He knew it was coming, and he should get out while he could… but he didn't often come across someone who liked a good scam as much as he did.

After awhile, the two went off in silence, though Prim protested again every now and then, getting more and more worried with every step closer to the mall. When it was in her sight, she felt as if she was going to collapse. Facing Madge would be awful, the same with Peeta. Still, Rory gave her words of reassurance, right until they got in the door. The Antidote table was gone, signalling another day that everything had gone just as planned, and another group were making their way back as well – Cato's search party.

"Peeta, Peeta! Look what I found!" Rory exclaimed loudly, making Prim duck her head. Great. Rory just had to do that, didn't he? Peeta whipped his head around quickly, a smile forming on his face when he saw Prim, though the thirteen year old girl could see a glint of sadness in his eyes, as if he'd somehow expected Rory to find the baby.

"Prim! I'm glad you're back… where were you?" Peeta asked, moving closer to her as Madge appeared at the railing, eager for news on her baby. Clove smirked to herself. In a few days, Madge would be long gone, if everything went to plan… and it would, she'd make sure of it.

"Did you find anything?" Madge asked, arms folded. Prim heard her voice, looked at her for a second, and then ran as fast as she could into her room in the Florists, diving under her bed, and wishing desperately that she had run off before Rory had taken her back.

xxxx

As soon as Prim had ran off to her room, Peeta had gone after her before he could give her an answer, mistakenly giving that opportunity to Cato, who would, as always, say something needless that would bring her to tears. He wanted to make sure she was okay, the poor girl looked absolutely terrible from the glimpse he had gotten of her when Rory brought her back!

He carefully approached the door to Prim's room, searching around the room, a frown appearing on his face. She'd definitely run into her room, he'd seen it with his own eyes, and doubted they were playing tricks, so she had to be hiding somewhere. He looked in the armoire that she had brought in from the Antique Shop with the help of Katniss – not there, just clothes. He looked behind a large stand that had been put up in the shop before the Virus had destroyed it – not there either. He was about to look in the next door room, the Grocer, to see if she had run into Rory's instead, when he caught a glimpse of pastel pink under the bed, the exact colour of the dress that Prim had been wearing.

"Prim?" Peeta asked softly, kneeling down and moving the blanket slightly so he could have a better view. There she was, hiding right under the bed, face buried in her arms, slightly sobs coming out every now and then. It was obvious she was scared out of her mind, frightened of what would now happen now that she was back, it all being her fault in her opinion that Marshall had been stolen from the tribe. "It's okay, you can come out… you don't have to hide."

"I can't!" Prim sobbed, not taking her face out of her arms. "I didn't want to face you, or Madge after what I did! I'll never be able to be forgiven!" Peeta looked at her sadly, sighing quietly to himself. There was a slight bit of truth with her words… though Peeta didn't think it her fault that Marshall had been snatched, Madge would never miss an opportunity to tell Prim that she was the cause of the event, making her feel horrible every time she saw her.

"Prim…" Peeta mumbled. "I won't let anything happen to you, no matter what you think." Peeta told her, though Prim didn't do or say anything in return. It stayed silent for about ten minutes before Peeta stood, knowing he could be on the floor for days trying to get her out, with no progress. "Okay… I'll be back at dinner time with your plate, if you decide to stay under here until then."

Prim gave him a small nod, still not budging, and Peeta left.

xxxx

"You do know that this is ridiculously stupid, don't you? If Johanna finds out, she'll break both of our necks – even though it's all your idea!" Cato muttered to Rory voice echoing through the sewers, who was fiddling with the camera from their sick kids scam. Rory nodded, but looked up and smirked, not missing an opportunity to be smart.

"What? Are you seriously scared of a girl?" Rory burst out laughing, but quickly shut up when he was smacked across the head. "Ow! What was that for?! Look, you want the Antidote formula, this is how we're going to get it without anyone having to be murdered, which is probably what you and Clove were planning in the first place." Rory sighed.

"I'm not backing you up on this, no way. If you're caught, you're on your own, and you will make it clear to Johanna that I had nothing to do with this, or I will most certainly help with breaking your neck, do you understand?" Cato growled, Rory nodding quickly, though he knew his plan was going to work.

"Fine, but I'm going to pull this off. I just have to wait for dinner, when Foxface and Johanna are on a break, then, I strike. I'll take pictures of all her equipment and ingredients, and then it's up to us to figure out what to do. Then… well, we'll be rich!" Rory exclaimed. Cato simply rolled his eyes, and left, Rory sighing to himself. "No one appreciates true genius these days!" He muttered, then left the sewers himself.

Rory waited until dinner, just as he had said, eating slowly, trying to make the food last long enough until Johanna and Finch came out of the workshop, which was a struggle, since he was ravenous. He watched and watched, gripping the camera in his pocket with one hand, the other on his fork. The group slowly came up, one by one, Madge muttering something about Prim as she sat down with her plate, Peeta leaving to bring a plate of food to the girl… just as Johanna and Finch came up. Perfect.

Rory watched as they sat down, the two taking a table facing away from the railing, which just made it even easier for him to get away with his scheme. Rory took two more bites, let out a string of coughs, and then got up, going downstairs to the Workshop. He carefully crept inside, careful not to make a mess and make it look like he had been in there, snapping photo after photo.

He went over to a corner of the room, fiddling with things carefully to get a good shot, before going into the next corner and doing the same. Once he had used up all of his film, he left, painfully unaware that he had left the gas on…

xxxx

That night, Clove made her way to the sewers for her shift of guard duty, though she knew she wouldn't be doing much guarding of the mall that night, not if her plan, perfectly formed in her mind, was pulled off. The Elite were going to get Madge out of the way, and she was going to enjoy every second of it. For hours she fiddled with her knife, trying and failing to keep herself from getting bored, until she finally guessed it was midnight.

She carefully left the sewers, making sure she was as quiet as a mouse, creeping up the mall stairs to the top level, stopping outside Kitchenware, the room of Madge and once also Marshall. She watched, making the girl was asleep and not just sobbing into her pillow, before walking in, careful not to step on any of the baby toys still spread around on floor. If she did, it would be over. Making her way to Madge's bed, she smirked at the sight of the girl. She looked.. peaceful. It would be such a shame to wake her. Carefully, she shook the girl awake.

"PE-" Madge began to shriek, jumping up, but was quickly silenced by Clove, who clamped a hand over her mouth. Furious and desperately wanting to be heard, Madge bit the girl's hand as hard as she could, Clove cursing loudly as she pulled her hand away, shaking it madly. Madge had even drawn blood.

"You bitch!" Clove hissed, rubbing her hand on the side of her pants, leaving a bloodstain there. Madge went to scream again, but Clove's words made her quieten. "Well, if you're going to be like that, stupid beast, I won't help you get to your baby." Madge threw the covers off herself, and immediately jumped up, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"What, no, no! Where is he, where is he?" Madge asked, unable to think rationally now, her only thoughts on getting her child back, not on the fact that the person she hated the most in the world could be trying to to trick her. Clove folded her hands, watching her, the desperation in her eyes just beautiful to watch.

"Meet me down in the sewers in ten minutes, maximum. Then, we will go. Do not tell anyone you're leaving." Clove ordered, and Madge nodded quickly, grabbing clothes from under her bed to change into, unable to think properly still. All she wanted was her son, no matter what it took.

Clove went down, back to the sewers, waiting for Madge quietly. Once about five minutes passed, the green sewer door opened, revealing Madge, fully dressed and ready to get going. Silently, the two headed off, into the night, growing closer and closer to the Elite with every single step they took…

xxxx


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: I'm so sorry for how long this took! I went on vacation with my family and I forgot to bring my laptop with me to write, and when we got back my cousin had knee surgery so we went over and saw him for a few days since he doesn't really have anyone else with him, but I'm back now :) Thank you to Lya200 and Glory of Lorien for reviewing, I really appreciate it! **

**Glory of Lorien - Madge will get worse... mucjh worse, but it won't really be her fault. I'm pretty mean to Madge in Never Ending Agony, but I'm nicer to her in the sequel. Clove knows that they weren't Marvel, it's kind of an odd story with the Elite... they just couldn't take it anymore, and turned to Marvel, who kind of became the only person for them to look up to when the adults died, and took it to the next, disturbing level. **

**Lya200 - Yes, Rosella is Snow's granddaughter. More about that and her story will be revealed in later chapters. Clove, Rory and Rosella's 'mistakes' will come back to haunt them soon...**

Chapter Fifteen

As soon as she awoke the next morning, something felt very, very off to Johanna. She sat up and rubbed her forehead, looking around her bedroom in Seam Records. Yes, she was still in the same bed. Yes, there was no one next to her that she had no idea about inviting into her room for the night. Yes, everything in her room was just as she had left it… it seemed like everything was okay… so why was the feeling of something off nagging at her?

Sighing, trying to shrug off the feeling, Johanna got up, and walked across the room to grab her boots laying by the doorway, getting a clear view of the Antidote line as she put them on. _The Antidote line! _Johanna thought to herself quickly, grabbing her old leather jacket and slipping it on. _The Antidote… Finch! Finch! I overslept! I haven't checked her stuff! _She thought again, wanting to punch herself in the face as she hurriedly left the room. Johanna had always been an early riser… what caused her to oversleep this morning?

She quickly walked down the halls, but made sure not to be _too _quick, not wanting to draw unwanted attention to herself, cursing under her breath as she reached the Workshop, knocking on the newly constructed door (which she had made herself, making sure it would withstand more than the last one) quickly, waiting for an answer. When nothing came, she cleared her throat and started to speak.

"Finch, open up!" Johanna called, banging on the door. "It's me, Johanna." She added, just as the smell hit her… the smell of gas. No reply from Finch. "Finch!" She called once more. "I smell gas in there… I think there might be a leak. You need to get out of there!" She said urgently. No answer. Getting annoyed, Johanna banged louder on the door. "Finch, I know you can hear me!" She growled. Still no answer. "I'm coming in, whether you like it or not." She said, starting to walk away to grab something to get the door down with, only to hear a sound that immediately brought her back… a sound that could only mean an explosion. "FINCH!" She screamed, racing to the door, which was now down, as she heard the sound of running feet behind her.

"Finch?! What… what's going on?!" Thresh asked quickly, eyes fixed on the broken, charred door. Rue stood beside him, looking extremely concerned. Johanna turned to him quickly.

"Explosion. I think there was a gas leak." Johanna told him. As soon as Johanna had finished saying the words 'gas leak,' Thresh was inside the room, barely caring about the smoke and rubble as he tried to find his girlfriend amongst the ruin. Coughing loudly, he tried to clear a path for himself, eyes widening once he finally saw Finch, laying underneath a cupboard, blood running down her pale face, completely still. Quickly, he lifted her into his arms, and raced out of the room to Johanna and Rue, Peeta now with them.

"Thresh, Johanna? What happened here?" Peeta asked, eyes almost bulging out of his head after seeing the state Finch was in. Thresh looked down at Finch sadly, trying to piece together how this could've happened. Finch was so smart… how did this escape her?

"There was an explosion in there, I'm pretty sure it was caused by a gas leak." Johanna said, repeating just about the very same thing she had said to Thresh as Annie and Marina ran up. Before they could ask what on Earth had happened, Johanna gave them a few quick orders, not wanting to waste any breath repeating her words anymore. "Annie. Marina. Get a bed up for Finch, we need to get her stable." The two girls nodded.

"I'm coming with you." Thresh nodded, holding Finch tightly as he followed Annie and Marina down the hall. As soon as they were gone, Peeta turned to Johanna.

"What are we going to do now?" Peeta simply asked.

"I have no idea, Peeta. I have no idea." Johanna muttered back. "If Finch doesn't wake up, we're completely screwed."

xxxx

"Are we anywhere near where you said Marshall is? We have to be… we've been traveling all night!" Madge said to Clove, trudging behind the other girl, feet aching, throat parched, stomach aching. If it wasn't for her baby, she would've stopped a long time ago, but she had to keep going, all for Marshall. Clove turned to her and rolled her eyes.

"Patience, Madge. Patience." Clove said tiredly, continuing to walk. Madge frowned, crossing her arms as she looked briefly around the woods, then back at Clove, just shaking her head. It had all become so clear to her. What on Earth had she been thinking when she had agreed to go with Clove, the person she loathed the most in the world?! Before thinking fully about the action, Madge grabbed Clove's wrist and yanked her around to face her, scowling. "What?!" Clove snapped, trying to free her wrist from Madge's wrist.

"We should go back and get the others… I… I'd feel safer with them around." Madge said quickly as Clove freed her wrist from Madge's hand, folding her arms as she looked at her, rolling her eyes once more. "I don't know what I was thinking, following you into the unknown, alone." Clove looked at her, stepping back, putting on a fake look of offence.

"What? I… I thought you cared about little Marshall's safety…" Clove said, raising an eyebrow. "You do care about your own child, right?" She continued, trying to stop herself from smirking. Reverse psychology. Genius. Madge looked at her, and nodded madly.

"O-of course I do! He's my son!" Madge cried. Clove turned back around, and started to walk again. "Let's just keep walking, we'll get there quicker." She said, and Clove nodded. After that, things stayed silent between the two girls, just continuing on their journey. After about half an hour later, Clove finally stopped. All Madge could see through the thick trees was the start of the cave… odd meeting place, but she didn't question. She just wanted her son back.

"Stay here. I'll sort out the baby business… you might upset them." Clove said firmly, and Madge nodded, taking a seat on a mossy rock as Clove disappeared into the trees, and soon into the cave.

Now, all Madge could do was wait… and it was excruciating for her. Many thoughts ran through her mind, awful thoughts that terrorized her. What if Clove didn't come back? What if Clove came back… but not without the baby? What if Clove came back with the baby… but ran off? She fiddled with her fingers, terrified, until she heard familiar cooing. She looked up, just about jumping up off the rock, blue eyes lighting up.

"Marshall!" Madge cried, taking the baby from Clove's arms, kissing him on the forehead and rocking him gently in her arms. "Thank you, thank you so much!" Madge looked at Clove, tears of joy dripping down her face. "I can't believe it… I was so wrong about you, so wrong about you all along!" Clove smirked, watching their little reunion… waiting for the real 'fun' to begin.

"I'm glad to be of service." Clove simply said, continuing to wait.

"I still can't believe how wrong I was about you, I really ca-" Madge continued to say to Clove, until she noticed hooded figures, clothed in purple robes circling around them. Immediately, knowing Clove was up to this, she shot a strong death glare at the girl. _"You dirty, scheming little bitch…" _She snarled, eyes never leaving the girl.

"No need for such words…" Clove said back, not affected at all. She started to step back slightly. "I just saw a chance for a great deal standing right in front of me, and I took it." She began to try and walk away. "I guess, since I've served my purpose here, I'll be leaving." The Great One stepped forward, and gripped her tightly, looking down at her with dark eyes.

"I don't think so…" The Great One said to her harshly. "The Elite do not make real deals with the impure ones…" Clove looked up at him, her face both furious and puzzled. Though she was terrified of what could happen, there was a little bit of satisfaction seeing her so confused.

"What?! I brought you what you wanted, now let me go!" Clove growled, struggling against them. More Elite grabbed Clove as she struggled harder, starting to shove her inside. "Let me go!" She continued to protest.

"Come on, Mother Supreme. It is an honour to have your in our presence." An Elite woman said to her, kneeling at her feet. Madge's eyes were wide… what had they just called her? She had no time to ask questions, as she was ushered inside the cave, a screaming, protesting Clove being dragged inside with her…

xxxx

Rosella sat at a large wooden desk in the Antique Shop, scribbling feverishly on a piece of paper, one of many. Beside her on the desk was a large stack of papers, ones that she had been up all night writing up, both because she wanted to do it and to try and keep her mind off the dreaded videotape that she'd destroyed, and the fact that Thresh was on the hunt for who destroyed it – it was her Bill of Rights that she had been talking about ages ago, that Clove had immediately shot her down on and had squabbled with about ever since.

"There." Rosella said to herself with a smile as she put down her pen, looking down at her paper for a few minutes, proofreading it before placing it on her pile, stacking them up neatly as she heard a knock. Immediately, she turned around, and once she saw Peeta, she smiled warmly, him exactly who she wanted to see. "Peeta, come in." She nodded. "I have something to show you.."

"Not now, Rosella, sorry." Peeta told her with a sigh, making Rosella look down. "We need everyone in the café right now. There was a problem in the Workshop this morning… an explosion, we think was caused by a gas leak. Finch was in there when it happened, and from my last check up with Thresh, she's still unconscious. If she doesn't wake up, we have a real problem on her hands." Rosella nodded as he spoke, but she couldn't help but feel hurt that he had just completely shot down what she wanted to show him, even without knowing what it was, even in the circumstances.

"But Peeta, can I at least tell you what it is? It's my Bill of Right-" Rosella began, but was cut off again by Peeta, who sighed and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Rosella, but not right now, okay? I promise I'll sit down with you later and take a look through it, but at the moment we have a real crisis on our hands." Peeta said to her firmly. Rosella held up her huge stack of papers, her neat, careful handwriting filling up each and every page.

"With these, we have a chance to have order in a time of a crisis!" Rosella persisted, how proud of her Bill of Rights now clouding her judgement. Peeta shook his head again as he watched her, rubbing his forehead.

"Rosella! I promise, I'll look at hem later, just not right now. Finch could be dead right now and if we don't have anymore Antidote production, things will get ugly soon, so ugly that your Bill of Rights won't even have any effect." Peeta muttered. He knew he was being harsh, but at the moment, he wasn't exactly relaxed. Marshall, his nephew, was still missing, he hadn't seen Madge all day and was starting to get quite worried, and this Finch thing was just the icing on the cake. He wanted Katniss back more than ever, he felt like he was going to crack under the pressure of being leader alone any day now. At this point he was even starting to wish that even Cato would clean up his act and joint lead with him!

"Fine!" Rosella felt tears stinging in her eyes all of a sudden. "Forget it, forget I even mentioned it! From the sound of it, everything's falling apart anyway!" She cried, grabbing the stack and hurling the papers all over the floor. Before Peeta could even attempt to reason with her again or try and calm her down, she stormed out of the room, looking extremely upset.

"Why did you have to go? I can't handle this by myself…" Peeta said, looking up at the ceiling, as if it would morph into Katniss' face and she would answer him. As he expected, nothing came. Eyes on the papers all over the floor, Peeta sighed, and left for the café.

xxxx

Madge's mood had changed rapidly in the last few minutes. At first, she was furious, boiling with anger at herself, for being so stupid to follow Clove to the Elite when she was such a scheming little snake, the Elite, for taking her for whatever reason they possessed, and Clove, for taking her here in the first place, and managing to trick her. Then, her mood briefly changed to delight as she watched Clove be chained up, but it didn't stay like that for long before turning to concern, both for her and her son. After that, it turned to terror – what was going to become of her and her son here? What did they want with them?

"Here are some goods for you, Mother Supreme. You must be quite parched and hungry after your long journey to get to us." The Great One kneeled at Madge's feet, a large brown bowl on water in one hand, a blue bowl of a variety fresh fruits in the other, making her eyes widen. Mother… Mother Supreme? Was she hearing things, or was that what they had just addressed her as? What did it mean?

"Why should I trust you?" Madge questioned, trying to sound bold but the terror even seeped through into her voice. "This food and water could be poisoned." She added, managing to sound a little snappy. Instead of the Great One, her blue eyes were focussed on the food and water. She couldn't lie, she was ravenous and extremely thirsty after the journey with Clove through the night, and the fruit looked extremely appealing, but she knew she couldn't just jump in just like that… the group, with their strange words, the spears and torches in their hands and the strange cloaks they wore, hoods up to conceal their faces, all made her feel even more uneasy than she already was.

"Hey, where's mine? I'm starving!" Clove suddenly burst out, struggling against the heavy chains on her. The guards turned to her, and shoved her to the ground roughly, kicking her hard in the back, making her wince.

"Shut up! You have no right to speak!" An Elite guard growled at her, kicking her in the back again. After that, the Great One turned his attention back to Madge, still kneeling at her feet.

"We have no reason to harm you, Mother Supreme." The Great One told her in a calm voice. He took a drink from the bowl, as to show her there was nothing wrong with it. "You, along with the Child of Chaos, are important to the Cause. Harming you would serve absolutely no purpose to you." The Great One said to her, placing the two bowls by her feet as he stood, bowing to her.

"If… if I'm this Mother Supreme, who you said is very important to your… _Cause, _that must mean I can get anything I desire, is that correct?" Madge inquired, knowing she did sound like a bit of a brat, but she had to ask.

"To please our god, we shall do anything for you, Mother Supreme." The Great One said, watching her. "As well as the Child of Chaos." Madge took a small step closer, Marshall held tightly in her arms. She was careful not to accidentally knock the bowls they had brought to her as she didn't want to waste any good stuff.

"Well, then, I would like my freedom." Madge said, voice firm. The Great One looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Our god wants you, and the Child of Chaos, Mother Supreme. We cannot grant you that." The Great One immediately told her. Madge looked down at the floor, more scared than ever.

"How long will I be staying here?" Madge asked him, rocking Marshall in her arms as he started to fuss. She looked around the dark, damp cave, only lit by candles and torches. It definitely wasn't a suitable place for a baby.

"Mother Supreme, you are going to be with the Cause forever, along with the Child of Chaos." The Great One told her. Madge looked up, eyes wide in horror. "There is no reason to worry, Mother Supreme, you are safe with the Cause. We can protect you from the unbelievers, and the impure." Madge looked down at the floor, tears in her eyes.

What was to become of her now?

xxxx

Back at the mall, the Mockingjays crisis meeting was underway. It didn't seem like Finch was going to wake up anytime soon, and if she died, the Mockingjays would be in a lot of trouble once the Antidote she had made, ready to be distributed, ran out. The riot would be absolutely awful, even worse than the last one that Cato and Rory had stopped just before it got unbearable… and had created more problems in the process.

"This is why we should've been told the formula in the first place!" Cato snapped. "I don't think the adults have spare copies for 'little slips ups' like this just hanging around for us! If Finch wasn't so selfish, this wouldn't even be happening! Thanks to her being such a selfish bitch, we're screwed if she doesn't wake up!" He knew secretly that it wasn't exactly Finch's fault fully. Sure, he thought she would've been smart enough to not let something like a gas leak escape her, it was Rory's fault too, for leaving the gas on while he took the photos. He wasn't going to snitch on Rory thought, not because Rory thought they were 'friends,' but because it would be absolutely priceless to see his face when Johanna found out.

"Selfish? This is coming from the person who wanted to sell the Antidote!" Finnick growled just as Peeta came into the café, looking quite concerned.

"What is it, Peeta?" Rue asked, looking up at him. "Are you alright?" Peeta sighed, taking a seat next to Annie and Finnick. He felt as if he was about to crack if anything else happened. He knew he should be used to it, they had been in a Virus ridden world for just over a year now, but lately, everything seemed to be hitting him much, much harder.

"Has anyone seen Madge? I haven't seen her all day… I took a look for her to ell her about the meeting, but I couldn't find her anywhere." Peeta sighed.

"No, I haven't… Anyone else?" Annie said, looking around the group, who all shook their heads. As usual, before Peeta could say anything else about the matter or change the subject, Cato added something unnecessary to the conversation.

"So that's why I wasn't woken up by ridiculous blubbering this morning." Cato muttered. "She must really be gone." Before Peeta could say anything again, Finnick spoke, bringing another thing he'd noticed around the mall to focus.

"Clove's not here either, is she?" Finnick said, looking around, as the other did. "If she and Madge went off together…" He trailed off, knowing everyone knew what he went. "Or she took her by force, for whatever reason… this-"

"This is possibly the best day in this place we're ever going to get!" Cato cut him off quickly. "Now, we're down a screaming little brat, a scheming cow, and a hysterical mess of a mother. What next? Loverboy decides to join his beloved girlfriend?" He chuckled, folding his arms, not knowing that Thresh had just walked into the café as he had said it.

"You know what would be nice, Cato? If you went off and joined Glimmer! That will make us all happy." Thresh said, everyone else's eyes widening. Did he really just say that? What was coming next would be without a doubt very, very ugly. Cato stood up and walked over to Thresh, clenching his fists as everyone else watched on.

"Excuse me?" Cato said through gritted teeth. Just as he swung a punch at Thresh's jaw, which the other boy dodged, another voice distracted them from what looked like would end up as an impending fight.

"EVERYONE, I THINK FINCH IS WAKING UP!" Johanna shouted, and immediately, everyone except Cato started to run in the direction of the room Finch was in, eager to know the state she was in. Hopefully, she'd be okay in a few days. If not… they had a lot of problems, even more than they already had…

xxxx


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: I changed my pen name to caged-aquarius (the titles of two my favourite songs, and I though it sounded nice together.) I thought I'd just note it to avoid confusion. **

**This chapter and the next will be very focused on the history of these characters before the Virus and how they came to be this way - Madge, Clove, Marvel, Peeta and The Great One. All flashback portions are in _italics._** **The fate of Finch will be revealed in Chapter Eighteen (and it may be someone's last chapter for awhile, if I plan it that way... but I might let them have a few more before they disappear for a bit *laughs evilly*)  
**

**Thank you to Lya200 and Glory of Lorien for reviewing :) I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please review! I think this is the longest chapter yet, including the chapters in The Dawn as well :D**

Chapter Sixteen

In the Elite cave, Madge had finally succumbed to the temptation of the goods the tribe had given her and was sitting in a corner lit by candlelight, drinking from the bowl of water thirstily and gnawing on the fruit hungrily, not saying a word to anyone, her terror stilled for a few moments as she filled her stomach and quenched her thirst. Clove watched on, bound in chains, finally realising that she was absolutely starving and would do anything to get those bowls for herself. Unfortunately, it seemed like she wasn't going to get anything to eat anytime soon.

"Why does she get all of the power?" Clove asked to the Great One, actually genuinely curiously. "I was Marvel's woman, I stood by him all through his reign… and back in the Tracker-Jacker camp, I possessed much more power than you could even dream of, Abe." She hissed, using the Great One's real name just to annoy him further. She didn't care about the consequence. She wasn't afraid. "Why should anyone listen to you?"

Clove received no answers at first, well, no spoken ones. The Great One began to move away, motioning to the Elite that were standing by Clove to follow, dragging the dark haired girl along, though there would be no escaping for her. She could barely move an inch due to the heavy chains she was bound in, and being locked up enraged her almost more than anything else. She looked around as best as she could as they dragged her away, wondering where they were taking her. She was dragged deeper and deeper into the cave, and for awhile, it felt like they would never let go of her. After what seemed like an eternity, the Great One stopped.

What happened next both interested and slightly shocked Clove as she watched. The Great One looked down at the pile of hot coals by his feet, and reached down, picked one up, and clenched it tightly in his palm, not seeming to care or be effected by the agony that he must've been experienced. She kept her eyes trained on him, not daring to look away and miss the moment he screamed in pain and dropped it, it too much to bear… except that moment didn't come. After about a minute and a half, the Great One put it down, still not looking at all phased by what he had done.

"Fire. The purest of all elements." The Great One said to Clove, his eyes locked on hers. "Two minutes. If you can beat the pain like we have, you can prove yourself true." Clove looked down for a second. She could endure many things, but fire was a weakness, it being like that since she was very young. When she was five and very foolish, the fireplace in front of her attracting her attention, she had reached her fingers out to touch the flames and badly burned her hand…. (she was only five, it wasn't one of her smartest moments)… and fire had been her one non-human enemy that never seemed to go away since.

"Fine. I can do it." Clove said, not wanting to appear weak or scared in front of them. She never backed down from a challenge, no matter how big or how small, and this was no exception. The Great One motioned for one of the Elite crowding around them to unlock the chains on her left wrist, and once the person did it, forced her to hold her hand out.

Within seconds, a hot coal was pressed into her hand which she was forced to clench into a fist, and absolute agony consumed her. It was pain she had never felt before. It wasn't what she used to classify as good pain, wounds from battles with other tribes and though they ached, made her feel satisfied, because she knew the person who had inflicted it was hurting a lot worse than her… or even was dead. It wasn't emotional pain, something she tried her hardest to block out but seeped through… it… it was purely _unclassifiable. _

Clove knew she hadn't been holding it long, and also knew the pain was all over her face, but she didn't care about that. She could feel the burn marks forming, the skin peeling off. Unlike thoughts of wounds before, it disgusted her, mostly because she knew this time, she just _couldn't _prove herself. She had to let go, and desperately. Letting out a shriek of pain, which wasn't planned, she tried to step back, which only made her stumble to floor due to the chains on her legs. When her burned hand hit the ground, though she didn't think it possible, the pain was even worse.

"What will we do with her, Your Grace?" An Elite woman, in a purple robe signalling no real special position, said as she chained Clove's wrist up again. The Great One let out a small chuckle, before he turned stone faced and serious again. Two Elite grabbed Clove by the wrists and pulled her up again, eager for orders. She didn't bother to struggle, she didn't have the energy to anymore. The burn seemed to drain it all out of her, as odd as it seemed.

"Take her to Mother Supreme. She will decide what to do with the impure." The Great One nodded, the Elite holding her returning it before beginning to drag her off in the direction of Madge.

xxxx

Madge pushed the bowl of fruit away, it finally empty. Her stomach was full, but it didn't stop the feelings of terror from earlier from returning to her. She took a small sip from the bowl of water, ten pushed it away as well. As she drank, the sound of chains rattling, grunting, and footsteps filled her ears, making her raise an eyebrow. Picking up Marshall again and holding him tight, not wanting to let him out of her sight for a second, she looked up to see two members of the Elite holding Clove by her chained wrists, the girl looked extremely tired and though she would obviously deny it, there was a bit of pain in her eyes as well.

"Mother Supreme, it is up to you to decide what to do with her." The Elite on the left of Clove, clothed in a purple robe as the other one asked Madge, who reluctantly took a step closer. "She has fully proven herself to be impure, and unless you have any wishes against it, we are going to dispose of her." Madge stared at the Elite member for a second, then looked down at Clove… what should she do? It would be amazing to see her finally gone… but… she had no idea why she was having second thoughts. It seemed ridiculous.

"Very well then, Mother Supreme." The Elite on the right of Clove bowed in respect before starting to drag her away with the other to kill her. Madge watched as they dragged her off, but as they reached what could be classified as the 'archway' of the part of the cave, a horrible feeling filled her stomached, and she called out.

"Leave her!" Madge ordered, but the Elite seemed to be ignoring her. Turning back, she placed Marshall down carefully, and stepped closer to the Elite members and Clove. "I SAID, LEAVE HER! I am the Mother Supreme, so you will listen to me!" She shouted in a boost of confidence. The Elite members turned back, and dropped Clove on the floor carelessly.

"As you wish, Mother Supreme. If she causes any problems, call for us and we will dispose her for you." The Elite member that had been on the left of Clove said, bowing to her out of respect, and then leaving, as well as the other, Clove, Madge and Marshall alone in the part of the cave. Clove looked up at her from her spot on the ground and smirked.

"What? Couldn't do it?" Clove mocked, Madge looking down at her furiously. She had now realised why she had saved the other girl who she hated so much – to clear things up between them, as best as they could, once and for all. "I knew you couldn't handle this power. You're in way over your head…"

"Do you want to push it?" Madge said through gritted teeth, her confidence staying. "If I get sick of you… I… I.. I WILL call those guards back in, do you understand? I don't care if you die. It may come up on my conscience a few times, but I'm sure I'll be able to sleep at night." Madge snarled. "I didn't save you because I felt sorry for you, we better get that clear right now. I want to clear some things up about us." Clove grabbed a rock and managed to push herself up, just staring at Madge.

"Ask away, honey." Clove said with a roll of her eyes, which only infuriated Madge more.

"I want to know why you hate me so much." Madge said in a tone eerily calm, especially since she was in such an awful mood. She turned around and quickly picked up Marshall, feeling safer having him in her arms after all that had happened. Clove let out a small laugh and smirked, watching her.

"I wonder the same thing sometimes, Undersee." Clove said back, using her old nickname for Madge, just to annoy the girl even more. She knew she was pushing it, but she still didn't think at all that Madge had the guts to do anything. Madge looked at her again, a look of pure hatred on her delicate face. If she wasn't holding her son, her hands would've clenched into fists.

"You treated Peeta like dirt!" Madge began, feeling as if steam was going to come out of her ears like in the cartoons she had liked to watch as a child. "You messed with his head, had a good time with him, and once you had your fun, you dumped him without a second thought and just jumped onto Marvel… and completely _destroyed _him!"

"Excuse me? I did not destroy Marvel. You did a pretty good job of that yourself, sweetheart. No one was there for him when his parents died, you especially, and he lost it. I just helped him find his way…" Clove said back, Madge just staring at her, having no idea on what to say. Not wanting to give Clove the satisfaction of making her speechless, she said the first thing that came to mind.

"Well, I guess we better start with the day it all began – the first day you arrived at my school…" Madge hissed and Clove nodded, memories swirling through both of the girl's heads…

xxxx

_Fifteen year old Madge Undersee sat at her desk in a classroom in Suzanne High, Marvel seated on one side, the other seat free. The blonde girl played with her pen as she listened idly to her teacher, not paying much attention to what he was talking about at all. At this point, the topic wasn't really phasing her… it was scary to think about, but it hadn't affected her family like others in the class. _

_"__At the moment, the government is currently discussing a plan to split the city in to 12 sectors, kind of like districts, just until the danger passes, or an alternate plan to sort out facilities in the country for all under eighteen in the city to live in until it is safe for you to come back to us." The teacher began to explain, Madge only half-listening. She felt a tap on her shoulder and immediately looked over at Marvel, who slid a note on her desk. _

_Hey, M. Want to get a smoothie together after school – Marv (: _

_Madge looked down at the note and frowned… she liked Marvel, but not exactly in the 'like-like' way. He was sweet, but seemed nothing more than a kid to her. Who she liked at that time was his brother, Peeta, who was on the basketball team and was liked by almost everyone at school. He never really seemed to go out with anyone though, and Madge really hoped that she could be the lucky one to go out with him sometime. Unfortunately, Marvel's big crush on her turned him off. Sighing, she scribbled something back to him._

_Sorry, M. Too much homework, maybe another time? – Madge :(_

_Madge slid the note over, watching Marvel as he read the note carefully. Sighing as she saw him frown, she turned away, trying to listen to the teacher, wanting a distraction, even if it was a topic as morbid as the awful pandemic going around the city… and from news reports, the rest of the world as well. A few minutes later, she received another tap on the shoulder, and saw another note on her desk. _

_M, there's no homework. Just tell me if you don't want to go out with me – Marv _

_Madge read the note quickly and went to reply, just as the door opened carelessly, bashing against the wall, the sound echoing through the room. Immediately, the blonde girl looked up, to see a dark-haired girl with brown eyes, probably a little shorter than her, standing at the door in a school skirt obviously cut shorter, and a shirt with the sleeves cut off. _

_"__This is the right classroom, right? I'm Clove Taylor, the new girl." The girl said with a smile that was obviously fake. The teacher nodded, looking down at his roll before looking back up again. _

_"__Oh, yes." The teacher nodded, pointing to the seat beside Madge. "Just take a seat, right beside Madge over there. Hopefully you'll be able to catch up." Clove nodded, and walked down to the seat beside Madge, sitting down as the teacher began to talk again. Madge flashed her a weak smile before turning back to the teacher, trying to ignore the fact Clove was starting to rifle through her pencil case for something, not having the courage to say 'no.' _

_This was the first time Madge encountered Clove, and it would certainly not be the last. _

xxxx

_About a week later, at lunch time, Madge was walking around the back field of the school, trying to get the courage to go up to the basketball courts where as always, Peeta was having a game with some of his friends. Taking a deep breath, she looked around, and after a few more minutes, she started to walk, hoping desperately that she could do two things, one making her happy and the other making her quite guilty – number one: ask Peeta to the dance, number two: avoid Marvel, who would probably want to ask her to the dance as well._

_Approaching the entrance to the basketball courts, Madge took another deep breath, her eyes set on Peeta in his sport uniform, running down the court, making a smile appear on her face. She slowly walked into the court, watching on the sidelines for a little while, still trying to get over herself and go and talk to him. _

_"__Hey, Madge!" Peeta's voice calling her name immediately alerted her. The two knew eachother quite well, though it had always been Marvel she was closest to. They'd met when Peeta and his family had moved into the area, and their parents had become quite good friends in a few months. In those few months, Madge's crush on Peeta began to grow on Peeta… as well as Marvel's on Madge. _

_"__Oh, Peeta." Madge smiled widely, trying to play it off as being there accidentally. She walked closer, watching as Peeta picked up his water bottle and took a long drink. "Having a good game?" She asked, being given a nod as an answer. Taking a deep breath, she moved closer, staring at her feet. "Um… so… have you heard about the upcoming dance?" She asked him awkwardly. _

_"__Yeah. I don't think I'm going to go though." Peeta sighed, taking another long sip from his water bottle before putting it back down. "My parents aren't too good. I'm worried about them, I think it's what's going around on the news, they've showing most of the symptoms… I'm probably just going to stay home and look after them." Madge looked down, sad, but she knew it was selfish if she was angry. The pandemic going around on the news, judging by what she had seen and heard, was quite frightening. _

_"__I understand." Madge said softly, nodding. She knew she would sound insensitive with the next question she was thinking of asking, but she blurted it out without being able to stop it. "Uhm… if by any chance that they're feeling a little better by the dance… maybe you could go with me?" Madge asked, chewing on her lip. _

_"__Madge… that's sweet, but I'll have to think about it." Peeta said back, hoping he wasn't going to hurt her feelings. "I think my brother really likes you. Maybe you should go with him." Madge, pretending not to be upset, forced a smile and nodded, looking around. _

_"__He might… I guess I'll go find him and have a chat." Madge said, turning away. "I'll see you later, Peeta." She gave him a wave as she left, which Peeta returned, thinking everything was still okay between them. _

_Madge left the basketball courts, sighing to herself, feeling worse when she saw Marvel sitting on a bench outside the courts, eating a ham and cheese sandwich as he read a book. She carefully tried to creep past, not wanting him to notice her, breathing a sigh of a relief as she got by without him noticing, quickly walking off in the direction of the library. _

_As she went, Clove peeked out from behind the sports shed by the courts, smirking. She'd seen the whole thing… and was going to make sure Peeta was hers. _

xxxx

"Why did you go for Marvel when you had that crush on Peeta?" Clove asked, leaning against the wall of the Elite cave. "And why has your crush on Peeta basically faded away… unless you're hiding something?" She raised an eyebrow. Madge sighed, looking down. Looking back at all these memories had made her realise things, and she was practically drowning in an ocean of guilt.

"I wasn't thinking. I was acting like a stupid, jealous girl. I didn't have Peeta, so I decided Marvel would be the best I'd ever get." Madge murmured, feeling even guiltier now that she had actually said it out loud. Clove smirked, the sight of Madge being guilty just being something lovely to witness.

"Yeah, yeah, that answers my first questions, you not giving a damn about him… but what about my other one?" Clove scowled, fiddling with her fingernails as she waited for her answer. Madge wanted to protest, but the words wouldn't come, just skipped to her answer of Clove's second question.

"I knew it couldn't stay that way once everything happened… the night of the dance and the morning after… Marvel snapping… finding out I was expecting Marshall.." Madge said softly, feeling tears brimming in her eyes, making her duck her head. She wouldn't cry in front of Clove, give her the satisfaction of seeing her shed tears. Never. "I'd have to put it aside. There was no way I'd have a chance with him, and now we're basically like siblings." Taking a step forward, Madge watched Clove closely. "Now, tell me – why did you go to all that effort to get Peeta, and then just toss him out just like that?"

"Why settle for just a boyfriend… when you can have the whole world?" Clove simply said, a smirk on her lips…

xxxx

_The next day after the lunchtime incident, Madge sat at her desk again, copying down notes about a rare wasp as she tried to forget about the dance coming up. She had made up her mind, she wasn't going to go. She didn't have many friends that were going, not counting Peeta, her other two friends, who were twins, out of town for the burial of their parents, who had died of the pandemic a week prior, and obviously wouldn't 't be in the mood to go to a dance, anyway. She continued to scribble down note until she felt a tap on the shoulder… meaning a note from Marvel. Sighing quietly, she took the note from him and read it. _

_Hey, M. You know that dance coming up on Friday? I was really hoping you'd be free to come with me… - Marv (:_

_Madge looked down at the note and frowned, trying to hide her face from Marvel, who was obviously expecting an answer soon. She ripped out a piece of paper from the back of her exercise book, feverishly scribbling down words, shoving his note in the middle of the novel on her desk ask she slid it over to him. _

_I'll tell you in person, okay M? – Madge _

_She quickly gave the note back, turning her head back in the direction of Marvel to see his reaction. While she did it, unknown to her, Clove grabbed the note Marvel wrote out of her novel and stuck it in her pocket, smirking, a plan forming in her mind…_

xxxx

_Like Clove had expected, Madge had turned Marvel down, and like she had also expected, Marvel had suspected it was because of Peeta, and liking him more. Since then, which had been two days ago, neither of them had spoken to eachother or passed a single note, leaving Clove a lot of time to make plans of her own. It was currently 4:30, just when Peeta's basketball practice ended, and she was waiting for him to come out, so she could finally put her plan into action. As Peeta finally came out of the gym, she leaned against the wall, acting casual. _

_"__Hey, Peeta." Clove said, looking down at the floor. "Good game in there?" She asked with a small smile, trying to come across as 'sweet' even though she felt like throwing up… anything to win Peeta, though. Peeta gave her a smile and nodded, taking a sip of water. _

_"__Pretty good." Peeta said, putting his bottle back in his bag. "You're Clove, right? You've been playing basketball with us for the last few days… you're good." Clove let out a fake, but convincing giggle, and rolled her eyes. _

_"__Oh, really? I mustn't be that good… but thanks." Clove shot him a smile, and started to walk with him out of the school. "Mind if I walk with you?" Peeta shook his head. _

_"__It's fine." Peeta smiled back and the two walked in silence for a little while, until Clove reached the school gates, and pulled out Marvel's note to Madge out of her pocket. _

_"__I thought I should show you this… I found it on the floor, and I know I'm still pretty new here, but I don't like seeing people hurt…" Clove held out the note to Peeta, who took it and started to read it, frowning. _

_"__What? I don't really understand why you're giving me this…" Peeta muttered as the two walked out of the school, stopping at the bus stop a little while down the road and sitting down, Clove sitting beside him, looking at the floor. She had to keep the act up, and it had to work! It need to!_

_"__Poor Madge… I've seen it before." Clove told him sadly, fiddling with a rock with her feet. "She's torn between two brothers, and is going to end up getting hurt soon.." She murmured, looking at Peeta, who nodded. _

_"__Madge asked me to the dance, but I thought she'd be better going with Marvel.." Peeta looked down. "He adores her, talks about her all the time, and I can't really go. My parents, they're sick… I think it's what they're always talking about on the news." Clove feigned a look of concern. At home, she had caught sight of her mother coughing blood, and was just counting down the days until she died. Her mother had had an affair with a bookkeeper and Clove had been a product of it, making her husband, who she loved most in the world, leave her. They didn't exactly have the best relationship, to say the least._

_"__Oh, Peeta… that's awful." Clove said, pretending to look worried. She put a hand on his shoulder. "I hope it's just the flu.. it's a pretty horrible thing, isn't it?" Peeta nodded sadly. "How about, if they're feeling better, which hopefully they are, you could go to the dance with me… Madge can have Marvel." Peeta smiled. _

_"__That sounds nice. You seem sweet, Clove." Peeta told her, smile staying as the bus pulled up. "I better get going. I'll see you later."_

_Clove nodded and waved goodbye. Sweet? How wrong he was…_

xxxx

"So, that's how I got him to come with me." Clove said, a satisfied smirk on her lips, Madge watching on, absolutely infuriated. How had she done that to her?! Well, it was expected from Clove, but it still left her completely shocked and angry. "You really did not give a damn about Marvel, did you? You couldn't just be happy with him.."

"If I could go back in time, I'd do it different. I'd be there and support him… but I can't. I can't fix the mistakes of the past. I can only stop from making the same mistakes with someone who cares about me in the future." Madge said, looking down at the ground, tears brimming in her eyes, which she definitely wouldn't let fall in front of Clove. She bitterly regretted what she had done to Marvel, but like she had said, she couldn't change it.

"Yeah, you're right. You can't change it… he snapped, and it was bound to happen, anyway." Clove said to her, her brown eyes going down to Marshall. "Power and chaos has made a lasting impression… and your little one… well, he's gonna grow up wild, like an animal. He's gonna be so screwed up… and there's nothing you can do-"

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" Madge shrieked, putting Marshall down, who was now screaming thanks to her outburst, raising a hand to slap her across the face with such intensity she fell to the ground, looking up at her and shooting her a glare. Clove's words terrified her, mostly because they were true. Marshall would be forced to grow up in this screwed up world, and there was nothing that seemed to want to change anytime soon.

"If you dare-" Clove began to threaten, but was cut off by Madge.

"Let's just get back to what we were discussing, shall we?!" Madge growled, and Clove nodded.

xxxx

_After a lot of pushing from her parents to find some time for a little bit of fun in a dark time, Madge had come to the dance. Walking inside, she looked down at her pink dress and smiled slightly. She could have some fun… it wouldn't be so bad… Sighing, she leaned against the wall at one side of the gym, eyes on the floor. She only looked up at a familiar voice – Marvel's. _

_"__Hi, Madge." Marvel gave her a smile. "You look really beautiful tonight." Madge blushed slightly and moved closer, looking at him. He looked quite handsome himself, dressed in a blue suit that fit him perfectly, his hair gelled back. She couldn't help but smile back at him. "I was wondering if you'd like to dance?" _

_"__Sure." Madge held out a hand and let him guide her away from the corner. What was not to like about Marvel? He was funny, sweet, handsome, charming… a dance wouldn't hurt. She looked into his green eyes, them practically lighting up the room, it obvious that he was finally happy that he was able to do something with Madge. _

_As they danced, Madge found herself actually having a good time. Her smile grew and she felt herself actually starting to laugh as Marvel told her badly timed jokes while they danced. It all seemed fine until she caught something out of the corner of her eye… Peeta was here, his folks must've been feeling better, dancing with Clove. The girl had given her the creeps over the last few days of sitting by her and catching glimpses of her, and the sight of her with Peeta made herself feel sick. She tried to train her eyes on Marvel again, but she didn't have the same happiness in her as she had a few minutes ago. She continued to dance with Marvel, trying to ignore it… until she caught something else out of the corner of her eye that completely shattered her. _

_Peeta and Clove kissing. Not just a peck on the lips or anything… the type of kissing that lead to much, much more. _

_"__How about we go somewhere more private?" Madge faintly heard Clove say to Peeta once they broke apart. He nodded, and the two left the dance, hand in hand. Madge turned to Marvel and took a deep breath, wanting to do something herself, anything to hurt Peeta to make her feel better. _

_"__Marvel, how about we go back to my place" Madge whispered to him. Marvel smiled and nodded, and they too left the dance…_

xxxx


End file.
